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1 I 




A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


CHARLES M. SHELDON 



A 

BUILDER OF SHIPS 


The Story of Brander 
Cushing’s Ambition 


BY 

CHARLES M. SHELDON 

h 

AUTHOR OF “IN HIS STEPS.” “THE HIGH CALLING,” ETC 



HODDER & STOUGHTON 
NEW YORK 

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


\ 



Copyright, 1912, By 
George H. Doran Company 


j- 

©CI,A32831*l 

f 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEE PAGE 

I. The Admiral’s Daughter .... 9 

II. Brander Cushing S 3 

III. Sidney and Pax 64 

IV. The Perjury op Brander Cushing . 89 

V. The Compact 120 

VI. The Confession 147 

VII. The Tenement Dwellers . . . . 169 . 

VIII. IVhat of Pax . ...... 188 

TX. Her Defence ....... 209 

X. The Miracle of the Ages .... 230 

Epilogue — Twenty-five Years After; Sid- 
ney Cushing’s Christmas Story . . . 263 














A BUILDER OF SHIPS 






A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


CHAPTER I 

THE admiral’s DAUGHTER; THE BOW OF RIBBONS; 

SIDNEY Cushing’s risk; the naval factory hor- 
ror; FATHER AND SON. 

T he Secretary of War had finished his speech 
and turned to the contractor with a gesture 
that he might signal the engineer to release the lock- 
ing bars which held the monster warship on the ways. 
Then he looked with a smile in the other direction 
and motioned to a young woman standing a little 
behind him to be ready for the christening of the 
vessel. 

The girl stood there on the platform, whicE was 
built high up over the ship-yard floor, poised very 
erect and alert, a smile on her face and a proud look 
in her eyes, as she raised a bottle of champagne with 
a gesture of great animation. About the neck of the 
bottle fluttered a bow made of red, white, and blue 
ribbons. 

On the platform with the Secretary, stood a bril- 
liant and distinguished group : Senators and Repre- 
sentatives, secretaries of the cabinet, members of 
the Naval Board, ambassadors and members of the 
diplomatic corps, army and navy officers, retired 

officers and famous fighters. 

9 


10 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


The sunlight struck through the openings about 
the immense enclosure of the ship-yard and flashed 
into vivid pictures the color of the uniforms and 
foreign dress of the representatives of other coun- 
tries. There was a dazzling profusion of gold lace, 
plumed hats, scarlet trimmings, and gay braided 
adornments on breast and shoulder and headgear. 
Over all fluttered innumerable pennons and 
streamers of red, white and blue, and a great flag 
was hung over the bow of the warship on one side, 
covering several square yards of its black steel sur- 
face. 

The yard below was dotted with human figures. 
Workmen were at their places. On both sides of the 
vessel along the river, thousands of spectators were 
gathered. The largest warship of modern times was 
about to be launched, and the event was memorable in 
the history of naval affairs. 

A short, heavy-set man standing at the Secre- 
tary’s left looked over the edge of the platform and 
along the line of the vessel with a look of authority. 
His eye was steady and his appearance calm, but 
the moment was tense for him. This was Brander 
Cushing, the ship contractor. 

“ Just a little to the right, please. Miss Marston,” 
he said, looking across the figure of the Secretary. 

The girl moved forward slightly. ‘‘Yes. That’s 
right, thank you. Now! ” 

He raised his hand for the signal to McNeil, the 
engineer, and the next instant the mass of 26,000 
tons displacement began to move. It was hardly 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 


11 


perceptible at first. But it was a majestic movement, 
that thrilled those who felt the distance widening be- 
tween the platform and the smooth deck of the war 
monster. It was slipping down the slight incline, and 
the girl, with a quick glance at the Secretary that’ 
included an answering gesture from him and Cush- 
ing, leaned gracefully forward and threw the bottle 
against the bow of the ship. At that instant the 
band struck up “ The Star-spangled Banner,” and 
all hats came off, while a roar of cheers went up 
from the masses along the river. 

The bottle broke into a spattering glitter of glass,, 
and the champagne fizzed down over the steel side. 
But the bow of ribbons, caught by a sudden strong 
gust of wind from below, flew up past the edge of 
the deck and, lifted by a capricious and vagrant 
zephyr, floated along down the platform past two 
young men who were standing together at the ex- 
treme end of the platform on the river side. 

The ribbons were about five feet from the edge of 
the platform, but they were floating over the river, 
which was nearly seventy-five feet below. A chain 
wound about posts protected the platform at that 
point, and the first young man leaned out over this 
chain and, with more than half his body flung over 
the empty space below, clutched at the ribbons as 
they sailed by, but missed them. 

His companion had already stepped over the 
chain, and with one foot on the edge of the platform 
and one hand around the chain, he reached the other 
hand out over the river after the bow, which seemed 


12 


!a: builder of ships 


like an animated thing coquetting with him, as it 
whirled suddenly downward and away from him. 

His hand seized the bunch of color and closed over 
it. But at the same instant his foot slipped and his 
hat fell off and went sailing down into the water. 
His hand still clung to the chain, and his face, as it 
turned upward while his body hung there, showed no 
trace of fear or even of surprise. 

A dozen hands snatched at his wrist and arm. 
The first to get hold of him was the young man who 
had missed the ribbons, and his face was very pale 
as he helped to pull his companion up and drag him 
onto the platform. 

An officer of the Marine Corps nearby was one of 
his helpers. 

Young man, that was a close call,” he said, as he 
warned the people back from the edge of the plat- 
form. 

The young man did not seem disturbed in the least. 
He put his hand up to his head and laughed at the 
loss of his hat. 

The other young man looked at him soberly. 

I wonder you will run such risks, Sidney.” 

Do you ? I got the ribbons all right. Came near 
wetting them. I wonder if they are fast colors.” 

They were fast enough when I tried to get 
them,” said the other young man. His face was 
still pale and his manner more agitated than even 
the recent narrow escape of his companion would 
warrant. 

The people were slowly moving off the platform, 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 13 

and the two f^oung men walked along to the point 
where the Secretary was standing congratulating 
the contractor and shaking hands with a number o| 
distinguished men. The warship had floated out 
into the river and was coming to a stop within ten: 
feet of the point where the stolid McNeil had figured 
it would have to go. 

The Secretary whirled about as the young men 
came up. 

Your son, Cushing? ” he said, as the contractor 
looked at the young men in some surprise. 

Yes, sir. Sidney. I think he has met you.” 
remember him all right,” the Secretary an- 
swered with a smile. “ I would know him anyway. 
You look exactly alike.” He shook hands in his 
hearty fashion, and Sidney seemed no more abashed 
than at the loss of his hat. 

Speaking to his father but looking at the Secre- 
tary, he said: 

I had the misfortune to lose my hat just now.” 

You shouldn’t throw it up so high,” said the Sec- 
retary, laughing. 

I couldn’t help it,” said the young man, and this 
time his glance traveled from the Secretary to the 
girl, who was at that moment talking to the other 
young man, and evidently laughing over the answer 
to her question about the absence of his friend’s hat. 

‘^You had better go out and get another hat, 
Sidney,” said Brander Cushing, in a tone between 
disapproval of his son’s appearance and fatherly 
pride in him. 


14 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


‘‘All right, father. But I don’t know just where 
I can get one short of the Avenue.” 

“ Let Gordon take you up there in his auto.” 

“ He has all his seats filled. I’ll go down on 
Moore Street and get back in time. 

His father was about to remonstrate, but the 
crowd around the Secretary pressed up to offer con- 
gratulations and Sidney found himself close to the 
group surrounding the young woman who had chris- 
tened the vessel. 

“ I have never met Miss Marston,” he said. 

Gordon Ford looked at him in surprise. 

“What?” 

“ No. Never had the pleasure.” 

“ I thought ” his friend began, and then see- 

ing Miss Marston smiling expectantly, he intro- 
duced Cushing. 

“My friend Sidney Cushing, Miss Marston. I 
thought you had met at the Assembly last year.” 

Sidney Cushing bowed very low. 

“I would take off my hat. Miss Marston, but I 
have already done so.” 

“ I see you have,” she replied, laughing frankly. 
“ But pardon me. According to Mr. Ford, you 
didn’t take it off, it was taken off for you. .You ran 
a great risk.” 

“For a great prize,” Sidney said, placing his 
hand over his upper coat pocket where he had put 
the little bow of ribbons. 

The girl blushed and looked confused, and actually 
stammered some low remark that Sidney did not 
catch. 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 


15 


“ Pardon me ; I didn’t catch jour word. Those 
whistles are mightj impolite.” 

Out on the river the sirens on the yachts were still 
screaming around the new-comer that had just ar- 
rived among the floating palaces of the rich. 

You are not going to keep that little bow of 
ribbons, are you? ” 

“ I am, unless you will perhaps give me something 
better.” 

He was astonished at his own unheard-of audacity 
and wondering at himself to be talking thus to the 
daughter of Rear-Admiral Mars ton, when the girl 
suddenly turned and touched her father’s sleeve. 
He had been talking earnestly with Senator Eord, 
Gordon’s father. 

Father, will you meet Mr. Gushing.^ You were 
saying this morning, you know, that you wanted to 
meet him if he were here to-day. And here he is.” 

The admiral was a small man with unusually 
square shoulders, and a dignified bearing, which 
^ made good at least three inches which he lacked in 
stature. When he faced Cushing, the young man 
was struck at once with his mild and pleasant ex- 
pression. 

“Oh, yes, Pax. Of course I want to meet the 
young man. Do you remember, sir, a year ago 
when the fleet sailed for the Pacific, there was an un- 
usual accident on one of our cruisers, the Del Monte? 
In swinging out from the wharf preparatory to ac- 
companying us down the bay, one of her steel 
hawsers snapped and the short end of it whipped 
across the deck and caught a sailor who was sta- 


16 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


tioned by the forward davits and flung him into the 
water between the cruiser and the piling. Do you 
recall anything like that, young man? ” 

Cushing blushed and stammered something that 
the girl did not catch. 

^‘Excuse me,” she said smiling. ‘^But those 
whistles are yer;g noisy. I could not hear what you 
said.” 

I did not say anything in particular.” 

But you did say you recalled the event,” the ad- 
miral smiled, and looked more keenly at the young 
man. 

‘‘ Do you also recall the fact that a young manwho 
was standing on the wharf at the time jumped down 
into the water, and, at great risk of being crushed 
to death between the cruiser and the piling, rescued 
the sailor, who couldn’t swim, holding him up until 
he was hauled on deck?” 

Yes, sir, I remember it.” 

‘‘I’m sure you do. The sailor who couldn’t swim 
happened to be my nephew. Did you know that, 
very often, sailors are not able to swim? ” 

“ Yes, sir, I know it’s often a fact.” 

And is it also a fact ” 

“Oh, father! Why be so slow? Cet me ask Mr. 
Cushing a question. Mr. Cushing, were you the 
young man who jumped in and rescued Cousin Ed, 
and if so, how did you escape getting into the papers, 
and being thanked by the admiralty, and medale’d as 
a hero, and generally acclaimed by everybody? ” 

“ That is not a question.” 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 


17 


“ What is it? ” 

^^An examination.” 

The girl laughed, and Sidney Cushing again 
looked at her as he had looked the first time. Ad- 
miral Marston looked puzzled, 

“Yes, How did you happen to escape.^^ There 
was a big crowd at the dock, and I made immediate 
inquiry. But I learned only by accident a few days 
ago about you.” 

“I’m awfully curious, too,” said Miss Marston. 
“ Tell us how you escaped,” 

“ It might make a long story.” 

“ Then come and see us and — tell it at leisure.” 

“ May I? ” 

He asked the rear-admiral’s daughter, but Ad- 
miral Marston answered. 

Yes, come in any evening next week.” 

“ And Cousin Ed is with us then. How romantic ! 
He has never met you. Think of being saved from 
drowning and never meeting the person who saved 
you.” 

“ Yes,” murmured Sidney. “ It must He interest- 
ing. But this is not Washington. I may not be 
able to get to Washington next week. We are very 
busy over the new warship.” 

Again the girl laughed. “ I believe father thinks 
Dockville is Washington. I didn’t remember, either, 
for a minute, where we were. But can’t you call be- 
fore we go back ” 

She stopped suddenly and her father said gravelyl 
You forget. Pax, we return to Washington after 


18 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


the banquet. If business should call you- to Wash- 
ington, don’t forget our invitation. We want to 
hear that story.” 

He turned with his daughter and left the platform 
with other naval officers, and Sidney followed with 
his friend Gordon, who parted from him out oh the 
street in front of the ship-yard. 

Sorry I can’t take you up town, Sid, but I 
promised to get these folks over to the ferry for the 
evening express.” 

That’s all right,” said Cushing, good naturedly. 

See you at the banquet to-night. I’ll have to go 
up to Moore Street after that hat. You know the 
pater always means what he says.” 

He walked fast, with the athlete’s easy stride, 
through the maze of carts, vans, trucks, motor drays 
and freight wagons that jammed the river front, 
and entered the narrow end of Water Street. 

The pater needn’t have cared about such a thing 
as a hat. There were half a dozen in the office that 
night do.” But he smiled again as he recalled his 
father’s precise military exactness of habit and his 
punctilious observance of all the exact etiquette be- 
longing to dress, and also dwelt a second on the 
fact that in all his life he, Sidney, had never for a 
second questioned his father’s orders or asked why 
he was told to do a thing. His father had told him 
to go and buy a new hat, and he was going to get it. 
That was all. 

It was now three o’clock. The launching had oc- 
curred at the afternoon high tide, and there was a 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 


19 


full hour before his father would expect him back 
at the ship-yard. He did not want to miss the last 
train out and so miss the naval banquet, and he took 
the short cut through Water Street to Moore. 

He had reached the end of Navy Lane when he 
was brought to a sudden stop by a tremendous con- 
cussion of sound that roared up the narrow alley 
he was passing, and the next instant he felt himself 
thrown off his balance and was flung against the 
building near which he was passing. The impact 
dazed him for a moment. Then, next, his senses 
cleared and he looked up. Seven stories above, in 
the great naval supplies factory, he saw, through the 
blown-out sashes and torn fragments of window cas- 
ings, human heads, shoulders, arms of scores of girls 
and young women who were screaming madly. Next 
he was conscious of black smoke in round balls roll- 
ing out over the heads of the human creatures sway- 
ing up there, tearing at one another to get to the 
windows, appearing and disappearing. Then red and 
white tongues of fire shot through the black balls of 
smoke, and then — he stared up with death-white face 
as the first girl struggled out on the window-sill, 
seventy-five feet above the stone flagging, threw up 
her arms and without a second’s pause jumped out 
into the air. Another followed. Another, another. 
O God! Was there no other way? Stop I Stop! 
Wait! ” He knew he was shouting, but it seemed as 
if his throat was choked with blood and ashes. He 
realized that buildings were emptying around him, 
that hundreds of people had suddenly swarmed into 


go 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


the court and alley and were looking with awful 
earnestness at the silent bodies falling, falling out of 
that furnace up there. And then his brain cleared 
and he began to seek a plan. His mind was made 
that way. 

■ The alley behind the burning factory was only ten 
feet wide. Directly opposite the rows of shattered 
windows was a double-decker tenement. People were 
pouring out of it in streams, carrying every imagin- 
able thing. The doorway which opened widest 
offered most hope. Sidney darted in and rushed up 
the central stairway. The clang of the fire engines 
sounded in his ears as he reached the top of the first 
landing. Still he raced on, one thought in his throb- 
bing brain — that seventh story with its human clus- 
ter of fair-haired girls, fighting for a chance to die 
outside instead of inside the room where only a min- 
ute before they had been at work. 

He knew, as he raced past landing after landing, 
that more bodies were falling, and he knew that as 
he ran he was crying out silently, ^^Wait! Wait!” 
But not out loud. He needed all his breath for what 
he wanted to do and hoped to do, but did not yet 
know how he could do it. 

At last he had reached the seventh story and flung 
himself into what he thought was an empty room 
on the side opposite the terrible row of windows only 
ten feet away. Even as he entered the room he cast 
a look around with swift encircling gaze. 

Over in a dark comer a human being sat up on a 
curiously contrived couch, staring at him. 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 


21 


What is the matter? What is the trouble? 
What do you want? ” 

A board ! Something long enough to reach 
over ” 

A board? ” The figure still sat there. But the 
voice was energetic. They were papering the next 
room this morning.” One hand pointed back- 
wards. 

Sidney flung himself out into the hall. Dim figures 
of crying people passed him. He threw himself 
against a door. He burst it in. Thank God ! The 
paper-hanger had left his stuff there. The board! 
He seized it, rushed back and thrust it through the 
window to the window opposite. Was it long 
enough? He hardly waited to see. The strange 
figure on the couch seemed to watch him. 

The board just reached, and that was all. A few 
inches only to rest on the edge of the sill. A few 
inches only to make all the difference between living 
and dying. 

He dared not trust his weight on this frail bit of 
bending wood, but he saw in an instant that he must 
put something on the end of it to prevent it from 
slipping off the precarious edge of the window sill. 
He tore out the lower window sash with almost one 
movement, jammed the end of the board hard up 
against the side of the casing, and then mounting 
on the sill himself he .braced his feet against the 
board, and holding on to the edge of the upper win- 
dow sash with one hand flung himself out as far as 
he dared with arm extended to help the first one who 


22 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


might venture across that narrow and doubtful 
means of life. 

Three walked over the swaying passage and an- 
other slipped and fell just as his hand was about to 
clutch her arm. Then through the swirling smoke 
he felt conscious of one face back in the opposite 
window, and he knew that the person was helping 
others up and encouraging them to go first. He 
called to her across the ten feet of eternity : 

Push your end of the board there ! It is slipping 
off here!” 

He could feel the end of the board under his foot 
moving, and he knew in a moment that she had 
obeyed him intelligently and instantly. 

‘‘ Strong, brave girl ! ” he said to himself, and 
then he witnessed as wonderful a sight as he had ever 
seen. But then, he was young yet, only twenty-four, 
and he had much to see. 

Two girls were standing on the board at the op- 
posite window. Their faces were blackened and fire 
shreds clung to their dresses. And lo, as he looked, 
and leaned far out with extended arm, he saw that 
the first girl was a cripple, and the other, who had 
already helped the others, was behind her, creeping 
along, holding the cripple and pushing and balancing 
her across those few feet of life. 

Quick I ” he shouted. The board is slipping ! ” 

It was a thing to dream of in the years to come. 
He stood there, his whole figure dilated, his arm 
flung out with fingers agonizing to reach that human 
creature shuffling so slowly toward him. At last he 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 2S 

clutched her dress. Even as he did so he knew he 
was thinking of the other. The board could not 
possibly hold the two. He pulled her in through the 
window and she fell in a fainting heap on the floor. 
The other? She was just beyond his reach. He 
strained every muscle to reach her; caught her 
hand; with a last desperate pull swung her towards 
him, and felt the board go and the window sash above 
him give way. 

Even then, he whirled as he fell, and the girl, who 
had with that last effort of his plunged through the 
window, turned and made a frantic ^ clutch at him. 

He was hanging, by some miracle, with his hands 
grasping the rough bricks of the window ledge, look- 
ing up into a face blacked with smoke and blistered 
with fire. She had her two hands about his wrist 
and her lips were moving as if in a prayer. He 
thought even then of the incident, not more than 
two hours ago, when he had hung to that chain, and 
what he had risked it all for. 

Then he felt her grasp relax and she fell back 
into the room. 

Brave lass ! She’s fainted,” he said. He 
struggled to raise himself and felt his strength go- 
ing, when a fireman’s head appeared at the window. 

Here ! ” was all the man said. He grasped his 
wrists in an iron clutch. Sidney plunged up, using 
feet and knees and elbows. 

“ That was a close call for you, young feller! ” 

And then the room seemed to swarm with firemen, 
and he had for the next few moments a confused 


M 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


medley in his mind of shouts, of hoarse orders, of 
fire-hose dragged in at windows, of overturning fur- 
niture, of all the wild but systematic movements of a 
city fire brigade in action. The double-decker was 
on fire, and the company was at work from within 
its walls, from the alley below and from the roof. 

Sidney never again saw the fireman who had pulled 
him up to life. Not even all his inquiries in the after 
days could discover him. One of the nameless heroes 
of a commercial age, to whom heroism is a part of 
daily action, as little thought of as going to work in 
the morning or coming home again at night. He 
passed on with the great unnumbered army of com- 
mon men who are always doing their duty, and do not 
want any medals pinned on them for doing it. 

In the thick of all the confusion he had a distinct 
sense of more to be done. He had almost lost con- 
sciousness. But he found himself again near the 
window. Nothing but smoke and flame. That was 
all a thing of the past. No more lives to be saved 
there. Where had they all 

Then he knew he was over in the corner where the 
strange figure of the man was. The girl was there, 
and the crippled girl, and they were all three carry- 
ing the man out. Smoke and flame in the narrow 
hallway. More shouting, mad rushes for stairways, 
water, fire, smoke, firemen, tenement roomers in 
panic, and at last, thank God, out in the street, the 
man on the couch, strangely calm, the girl with the 
blackened, burned face, and always in Sidney’s vision 
as she steadied her end of the burden. And the 
cripple somehow keeping along-side, shuffling down 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 25 


the narrow stairs, now flung against the wall by 
desperate men and women, now almost trodden under 
foot as the people poured down like maddened cattle. 
And then, as they finally reached the street and 
kindly eager hands helped, Sidney had the final view 
of the girl falling on her knees over the form on the 
couch, while the man’s hands fell with searching 
pathos over her tangled black hair. And for the first 
time Sidney realized that the man was blind as well 
as paralyzed. 

Then he knew that the couch, with the man and 
the girl by its side, and the crippled girl, had all been 
moved back, up the street, out of danger of falling 
walls, and he himself had come back to gaze awe- 
stricken at the line of firemen and others carrying 
those bodies out of the alley, and putting them down 
on the sidewalk, row after row. Oh, cover them up 
fast and close from morbidly unholy view, these 
young lives, victims of the hellish greed that built 
a firetrap without a fire escape (though the law said 
there should be one), and locked the doors of the 
factory rooms during the unpaid working hours of 
girls who toiled among inflammable and health-de- 
stroying materials when they should have been happy 
and laughing creatures in school or out in the fields ! 
Why not? The same as your child or mine. Is 
there one law of life for a factory girl and another 
for the daughter of the factory owner? 

But oh, the pity of it ! Those rows of covered-up 
bodies ! Yet some of the souls that were in them a 
few minutes ago are happier, no doubt, now than 


26 


A BUILDER OF SHIP 


they ever have been before. And that is the only 
compensation to this tragedy. Is it enough? 

Sidney took out his watch. Only a little after 
four o’clock. In less than half an hour all that had 
happened. The naval supplies factory was a gutted, 
tangled mass of ruin. Fifty bodies were somewhere 
within it. Fifty more were on the sidewalk. A few 
had escaped. The tenement house had suffered only 
at one side. The fire-fighters had subdued the enemy 
there. Every minute increased the number of mor- 
bid sight-seers. Ambulances choked up the narrow 
passages. The department threw ropes across the 
alley passage, and the police kept the people away. 

Sidney mechanically put his watch back. What 
more could he do? The crime had been committed — ■ 
the crime of respectable greed against poverty; the 
story was all there for the newspapers. Yes, there 
was a newspaper reporter with his camera taking 
shots at the ruins, the firemen, the crowd, even the 
bodies. He saw one enterprising reporter even at- 
tempt to pull the covering off a dead body as it 
was being carried toward an ambulance. He wanted 
to strike him down. It was the first time even during 
that half hour’s tremendous experiences that he felt 
his pulses quicken into real fever heat. 

The incident passed. A policeman thrust the 
young man back. The body was hastily pushed into 
the wagon and another lifted up. Sidney grew sick. 
He went back, forcing his way slowly through the 
mass of people, to make inquiry of the group he had 
left, of the strangely calm old man with the eyes that 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 




seemed to see and not to see, of the girl who had 
helped the others, the girl with the blackened fire- 
blistered face. But in the confusion he could not 
find them. He stood aimlessly enough, at last, on 
the fringe of the mob, gazing at the smoking ruins, 
wondering over the loss of life, not able to realize his 
own share in the afternoon’s event, an event which 
he could not understand until long and wonderful 
years had rolled over his head. 

At last he felt himself moving slowly back with the 
crowd. The police and the fire department needed 
more room. He was of a decided, positive nature. 
There was no more he could do. He extricated him- 
self from a heavy-faced group of men who had 
blocked his way and started up Moore Street to get 
— ^he smiled strangely as he said it to himself — to 
get a hat, when a young man stopped him. 

‘^Oh, you’re the young fellow who helped bring 
people out of the double decker. What is your 
name ? ” 

What is yours ? ” 

I’m representing the ^^ew York Megaphone,^' 

“ Oh, are you ? ” 

Sidney moved along, and the reporter kept step 
with him. 

‘‘ Yes, and I want your name and the particulars. 
How did you come to be here? ” 

How did you? ” 

Come. Is that the way to talk on an occasion 
like this? What’s the matter? I only want your 
story. What’s your name? ” 


28 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


“ I know him. That’s Sidney Cushing, son of 
Brander Cushing at the ship-yard,” said a man whom 
Sidney recognized as a dock hand. 

Oh ! Cushing ! Give me your story. T hear you 
helped several out. Crossed on a board or some- 
thing. How was that? Give us the story,” 

The reporter planted himself fairly in front of 
Sidney and repeated his question. 

“ What did you do ? Give us the story.’^ 

I’ll never give it to you,” said Sidney slowly. 

The reported looked at him incredulously, hesi- 
tated and then said: 

‘‘You did save several. On a board between the 
windows. Who were they? ” 

Sidney forced his way past him, until he was on 
the extreme edge of the mob. The reporter followed, 
still plying him with questions, to which he answered 
never a word. 

Finally the reporter turned back with a smile. 
“ I’ve got it all, Mr. Cushing. Thanks for your 
courtesy. You’re a hero, all right. And you look 
it. Must have been great. Don’t see why you want 
to be so modest about talking. I’ll get the rest from 
the family. Howard’s the name. Old man’s a para- 
lytic blind man.” 

Sidney turned on him in a fury. 

“If you print my name in connection with this 
horror. I’ll ” 

“ Yes, what? ” 

“ Are you the hound who tried to uncover one of 
fhe bodies a little while ago? You are. Any crea- 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 


29 


ture who would do a thing like that at such a time as 
this is not entitled to the name of a man,” 

The reporter looked at him queerly, but did not 
Seem offended. 

^^Good stuff! You look it all right.” But Sid- 
ney turned on him with such a snarl of rage that he 
backed off and went back into the crowd. 

Sidney felt sick at heart, and for the first time 
he began to realize the condition of his own person. 
He was hatless, and his face was blackened with 
smoke and burned in several places. His coat was 
torn, and his hands were bloody where he had clung 
to the rough bricks of the window ledge. And now 
he began to feel the reaction from the excitement 
and his exertions. Once more he drew into the 
crowd, fascinated by the horror of it all, and vaguely 
thinking his duty called him to do something. But 
there was nothing to do. The police and fire de- 
partments had the premises roped off, and no one 
but those authorized could get inside. The mob had 
increased to several thousand people. And so he 
started back to the ship-yard office. 

Every step of the way he could see those bodies 
falling, falling I thud ! thud ! thud I He could see the 
long rows on the sidewalk and the face of the girl 
over there in the window encouraging the cripple to 
go on. He groaned and shuddered as he walked 
on. When he finally reached the yard it was empty. 
All the men had heard of the fire and had gone to H 
in a body. His father’s private office* was at the 
extreme end of a row of offices belonging to differ- 


so 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


ent members of the company, and back from the 
noise of the great yard. As he hurried along toward 
this point, Sidney could not help wondering if his 
father could be there, ignorant of the great tragedy 
which had been acting out only a few blocks distant, 
and he could not avoid a feeling of almost reproach 
for his father that he could be so indifferent, or so 
absorbed in the new battleship he was planning, as 
to let everything else become secondary. 

As he reached the office and entered, he saw his 
father seated in front of a large desk covered with 
plans. Before his father saw him, the telephone 
rang. 

What ! ” Cushing was saying. You don’t say 1 
How dreadful! A complete ruin, you say.^ Lives 
lost.? How many.? It’s probably exaggerated. I’ll 
go right over.” 

He turned and saw his son. 

Sidney! What! Where have you been.? ” 

Sidney sat down and cried like a boy. 

His father was deeply agitated. 

‘‘What is it.? Are you hurt.? Where have you 
been.? 0 God! That fire. You are always risking 
your life over something. ^Will you never 
learn ” 

Sidney lifted up his head. 

“ Father, I shall never be able to sleep soundly 
again. Those bodies — ^I shall always see them fall- 
ing, falling ” 

His father reached out a hand and laid it on his 


arm. 


THE ADMIRAL’S DAUGHTER 


31 


“ It must have been awful. Is the factor3(] 
ruined? ” 

“ Yes. An explosion of a defective gas heater. 
But a hundred lives lost! It is awful! And there 
were no fire escapes. No way for the poor girls to 
get out.” 

Brander Cushing moved uneasily. No fire 
escapes ! ” he repeated to himself. 

Now to understand fully the scene that followed 
one must know that Brander Cushing first of all 
idolized his son, and in the second place he had one 
great ambition in his heart — that Sidney should suc- 
ceed him in the great ship-yard as the builder of the 
greatest and most modern warships known to civili- 
zation. 

“ There were over two hundred girls in the fac- 
tory. How did they escape? ” 

‘‘ Some of them down the stairways. Some of 
them ” 

“ Did you save some of them, Sid? ” 

‘‘ Yes.” 

Tell me. It must have been ” 

Sidney told him simply and sadly. 

It must have been — it was splendid.” 

“I don’t — I can’t dwell on it. My head whirls 
now. I — I’ll wash up.” 

Sidney went into the adjoining wash room and his 
father rose and walked nervously back and forth 
through the office. 

You were not hurt? ” 

“ No, sir. Only bruised a little getting back into 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


the window when the sash broke and the board went 
down.” 

“ And you don’t know who the people were you 
helped.? ” 

“ Some one said it was Howard. The man was 
blind and paralyzed.” 

“ I know who he is. Used to work in the yard. I 
think he was hurt at the keel-laying of the Albatross, 
That was before my time. We will hunt them up.” 

“ Yes, and a daughter. Mighty brave, cool girl.” 

Sidney came out of the wash room wiping his 
face and looking curiously at his father. “ I can’t 
understand why there were no fire escapes. Who 
was responsible.?” 

His father did not answer. 

Sidney sat down and put his hands over his face. 

“ Father,” he said suddenly, in a terrible voice, 
‘‘ I remember now. The company owns the Naval 
Supplies Building. Two months ago we were notified 
by the marshal to put in the escapes. His deputy 
served the papers when we were here in the office to- 
gether. Somebody is guilty of the death of those 
girls. Who is it? - 

‘‘ Not you.” 

Who is, father? ” The young man stood up and 
faced the older one with a look that his father had 
never before seen there. And Brander Cushing knew; 
in that bitter moment that the first event had hap- 
pened which might create a breach between himself 
and his son and perhaps bring to nought his am- 
bitious dream of over twenty years. 


CHAPTER 11 


* 

BEANDER CUSHING; THE NAVAH BANQUET ; THE 
CRISIS/ THE denial; THE PARTING OP THE WAYS,* 
SILAS PLEMING, COUNTY ATTORNEY, 

<6jr blame, Sidney. tYou’re not the 

* Company, not yet.” 

‘^Have you thought what it means? O God! 
Father, if you had seen what I saw an hour 
ago 

Brander Cushing’s Eahd trembled as he put it 
up to his mouth and he could not conceal his agita- 
tion by the strongest effort. 

don’t attempt to excuse myself, Sid. The 
marshal’s notice — I was head over heels in the 
launching — I hadn’t meant to put off attending to 
the fire escapes^ — see here ! 1 made a note here and 

called Johnson’s attention to the matter, advising 
him to order the stuff and have it put through — 
where is it? Here.” He turned to his files, found 
the memorandum and held it out towards Sidney. 
Sidney paid no attention to it. 

Have you thought what may come of this, 
father? ’’ 

Of course not. I Have not ” 

The county attorney may bring suit.” 

Brander Cushing’s face paled. 

I think not.” 


33 


34 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


He is your political enemy.” 

I can see to that.” 

‘‘But, oh, father, it isn’t that — it’s ” 

“What?” 

“ The crime of not obeying the law ” 

“Do you charge your father with crime?” 

“ I don’t know what I do, father ” 

There was silence in the office room. Brander 
Cushing looked at his son and his face grew very 
hard. 

“ The only witness to the serving of the notice by 
the marshal was yourself.” 

“ And yourself.” Sidney said it in all simplicity. 
No suspicion of what might come. 

His father turned and carefully filed away the 
papers in the office safe. Then he faced his son 
with another look. 

“ I’m going down to the scene of the fire. There 
will be time to get over to the city for the ban- 
quet.” 

“ Banquet ! ” 

“ Yes. They will not sit down before nine- 
thirty.” 

“ I can’t go, father.” 

“Can’t go! Why not?” 

“Father! After all that ” 

“Well, what can you do now?” A pause. “I 
feel as bad about it as you do. But the banquet 
is too important to miss. I must go. And I want 
you to be there. I’ll go home from the — the fire, 
and meet you there.” 


BRANDER CUSHING 


35 


He went out, and after he was gone, Sidney sat 
down and thought. His mind kept going over and 
over the scene at the factory. Always those bodies 
falling, falling — would that picture never fade out 
of his memory? ” 

He went home and dressed for the banquet, and 
then sat down to wait for his father. 

Brander Cushing was a widower, and Sidney was 
his only son. They lived in a comfortable old house 
maintained by a housekeeper, a butler and a man 
servant. Unlike nearly every one of his business 
acquaintances, Brander Cushing had a scorn for 
automobiles and did not even keep a horse. He had 
been a great athlete in his younger days and often 
told his friends that the new modern riding ma- 
chines were bound to destroy the stamina, endur- 
ance and manhood of youth. What exercise did the 
modern business man or even young man have now- 
adays? He ate his breakfast, rushed into a car 
which half the time a hired hand drove, got into an 
elevator, sat down to his desk, dictated letters, 
walked around the nearest corner for a fifteen-minute 
lunch, back to his money-making for four hours 
more, and then another ride home in a car and possi- 
bly a mild golf game two or three times a week ; but 
no red-blooded exercise worth talking about, no 
real walking or running to keep the physical man 
up to the mark — a rapidly growing flabby, degener- 
ate, soft-muscled, sloppy race that couldn’t sit up 
straight, hit a hard blow, or walk half a mile with- 
out puffing. So he held to his five-mile walk every 


36 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


morning, and Sidney, who had followed his father’s 
steps in athletics, did not question the methods of 
his father even when the remarkable absence of auto- 
mobile and carriage brought him into some embar- 
rassing situations. He had accepted it all as he 
had always accepted his father’s positive life pro- 
gramme, and had rather enjoyed the reputation for 
queerness and distinctiveness it gained for the fam- 
ily name. 

Brander Cushing found Sidney ready dressed, sif- 
ting in the library. 

It was a horrible affair, Sid.” 

^^Yes.” 

‘‘ Over a hundred girls dead. 

Silence. , 

The factory a heap of ruin.” 

Sidney sat there in his evening clothes, mute and 
pale. 

‘‘ There will be a strict investigation.” 

Silence. 

‘‘A horrible affair. And you saved — how 
many? ” 

I don’t know.” 

On a narrow board — crossing over on it? ” 

« Yes.” 

*^I found out about the Howards. Theodore 
Howard is the name of the blind paralytic. His 
daughter’s name is Hermosa.” 

Hermosa? ” 

Yes. The crippled girl you spoke of rooms nexf 
to them. Her name is Athanasia.” 


BRANDER CUSHING 


37 


AtHanasia? ” 

Yes. I remembered it because it is so queer.” 

Silence. 

I feel almosS as you do, Sid. I’ve no heart foi^ 
the banquet.” 

^^•L'et’s not go!” 

‘^No. We must go. I must stand in with tEe 
old Vets. Besides, Sid, I’m down on the programme, 
you know, to respond to the toast of ^ The Builder.’ ” 

He passed into the dining-room. 

Better have a cup of tea before wei go.” 

*‘No, father, I don’t care for it.” 

Very well. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.” 

Father and son came out of the house half an 
hour later and walked down to the ferry station, a 
mile distant. 

More than one person, meeting ^;hem, paused, 
stopped, turned, looked, and said “A fine pair! 
What a stride ! ” and then with a pleased smile wenti 
on dwelling over the memory of the handsome’ fathei; 
and son as they looked on that September evening. 

The banquet was late, as most banquets are. It 
was brilliant, as a navy banquet is apt to be. By 
brilliant we mean, there was an elegantly appointed 
hall. A distinguished company of men and womenl 
facing a distinguished looking menu composed of 
some of the most expensive luxuries called food. 
Seven different kinds of drink, most of it intoxicat- 
ing. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in the shape 
of costly gems worn by old and young women.; 
Hundreds of ‘^our country’s flag, sir!” festooning 


38 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


walls, tables and ceiling. Rare orchids, out-of-sea- 
son tropical fruits, gorgeous displays of cut glass, 
and individual favors at each plate, of a silver battle- 
ship. Above all, the presence of the Secretary of 
War and most of the President’s cabinet, members 
of the Supreme Court, ambassadors, admirals, sea 
captains, retired officers. Senators, newspaper men, 
multimillionaires, business men, speculators, money 
kings, every one but the common people who make 
navies and armies possible. 

Just before the Secretary rose to speak there was 
a miniature launching of the new battleship, the Re- 
public, A curtain was withdrawn from the end of 
the speaker’s table and the scene of the shipyard 
was re-enacted, even to the breaking of a tiny bot- 
tle over the bow of the ship by an automaton. All 
cheered as the model, which cost $500 to make, 
glided down into a real pool of water and stopped 
by clockwork directly in front of the Secretary, and 
the banquet committee smiled complacently in antici- 
pation of having pulled off the finest stunt of any 
committee for the Naval Club for years, sir. 

Sidney neither ate nor drank that night, except 
by what might be called mere courtesy. Neither his 
father nor himself touched liquor at any time; an- 
other eccentricity of Brander Cushing’s household. 
Sidney sat where he could see Admiral Marston’s 
daughter. She looked older and far more digni- 
fied than she had looked at the ship-yard that after- 
noon. Only once did she seem to notice him, and 
then she smiled as she nodded in friendly fashion. 

When the ship came down the ways Sidney shut 


BRANDER CUSHING 


39 


his eyes. He could see — ! Would it never leave 
him — that memory? Bodies falling, falling, each 
one of eternal value — worth more than all that room 
full of wealth — but oh, how cruelly cheap they all 
seemed to fashion and beauty — to white, fair shoul- 
ders and sleek, fat cheeks of flabby-faced banqueters ! 
And only a few hours ago ! He found himself won- 
dering even if any one there had heard of it — ^but 
news travels fast in big cities. He tested his own 
query by asking the young woman beside him — she 
was the daughter of a naval architect — Miss Far- 
ley, have you heard anything about the burning of 
the naval factory this afternoon?” 

‘‘ Why, yes, I heard some talk on the way home 
from the cathedral. Was it a very bad affair?” 
The girl smiled at Sidney as if she had said ^^And 
was it a very warm evening, Mr. Cushing? ” 

Sidney made some answer to which he heard the 
girl say Oh ! ” and then, Have you seen the new 
organ screen at St. John’s? It’s too beautiful for 
anything. The cathedral’s going to be the show- 
place of New York when it’s finished.” 

The Secretary made a conventional navy and army 
speech. He congratulated the navy department on 
now possessing three of the largest fighting machines 
afloat. He paid a high compliment to Admiral 
Marston, who, he said, had brought the service up 
to a high degree of efficiency; and he closed his re- 
marks by calling for a toast (drunk standing) to 
the United States navy, ‘‘Bigger and better every 
year.” 

When the distinguished company had subsided. 


40 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


after imbibing several gallons of champagne, Ad- 
miral Marston rose. 

Sidney could not help contrasting him with his 
own father, who, as one of the speakers of honor, 
was seated beside the admiral to-night. Marston 
was thin, short, small-headed, with colorless eyes and 
a French beard. ’ Cushing sat there, the handsomest 
man by far in that company, athletic, square-j awed, 
determined, the most wide-awake looking man in New 
York. ‘‘Does your father ever go to sleep?” Gor- 
don Ford once asked Sidney. Other people won- 
dered over the same question. 

The admiral spoke in a dry, commonplace fash- 
ion, as if he had written his speech just before sup- 
per, and had it buttoned up in his pocket, as per- 
haps he had. He quoted a long list of figures to 
prove that the United States navy would have to 
add so many new types of vessels every year to make 
a fair showing in competition with Great Britain, 
Germany, or even with France and Japan. 

And then he made the proposition that provoked 
the greatest applause of the evening. 

“ We are much embarrassed at the present time 
in the history of both army and navy, on account 
of the failure on the part of young men to enlist. The 
Department may as well acknowledge that we face 
a grave and alarming situation. Owing to business 
enticement, whereby a young man can begin his 
career in many cases with a higher salary than the 
United States can proffer to some of its officers 
after they have been in the service many years, the 


BRANDER CUSHING 


41 


army and navy suffer for lack of intelligent and 
capable recruits. To the cause of a lack of mate- 
rial for the rank and file must be added the efforts 
of so-called peace reformers, really fanatics, who 
are inflaming the public mind with appeals to prej- 
udice against war and military equipment. There 
is great danger that unless this narrow-minded fanat- 
icism is checked, the military spirit will in a short 
time die out of the nation. This would be nothing 
short of a calamity, the effect of which would be 
difficult to estimate. Now, the situation calls for 
some large and fitting plan which will educate the 
youth of the land into enthusiastic patriots. We 
must create a military spirit in our youth. I am 
ready to propose a plan — in brief, to suggest one; 
and I trust, Mr. Secretary, that it will meet with 
your distinguished approval — as, indeed, I venture 
to believe it will. My plan is to institute in all our 
high schools military companies to be trained and 
instructed in all military tactics, the use of firearms 
in actual drill and the regular inculcation of mili- 
tary patriotism.” (Great applause.) 

The admiral went on to elucidate his plan in 
some detail, and when he finally sat down the ap- 
plause again was deafening. 

Give ’em real rifles. No wooden imitations ! ” 
yelled one of the money kings, whose father had hired 
a substitute in the Civil War. 

This seemed to be the universal sentiment, includ- 
ing that of the girl who sat next to Sidney, 

Wouldn’t that be ^ne? ” she said. How proud 


42 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


we will be of our handsome high school cadets ! ” 

‘‘Yes, fine! ” said Sidney. 

At the same time he could not account for the 
strange feeling of uneasiness in his mind. He did 
not try to analyze it. Late banquets are not choice 
places in which to analyze, and at the next moment 
his father had risen to respond to the toast of “ The 
Builder.” 

Sidney liked to hear his father talk on the few 
occasions when he yielded to invitation. The hour 
was late, half-past twelve. But the minute Brander 
Cushing began, some people who had risen to go out 
sat down again. 

“At any rate,” Sidney thought with real pride, 
“ the pater isn’t theorizing. He talks United States 
about things he knows. Even admirals may not al- 
ways know. But the pater — the navy would not 
amount to much if some one didn’t know how to 
build the ships.” 

Cushing talked straight on. He gave some in- 
teresting facts about the dimensions and powers of 
the monster launched that afternoon, and then went 
on to speak of the next warship authorized by Con- 
gress, which was yet only outlined on paper, many 
details still unworked. 

“I think, though, I may safely say, Mr. Secre- 
tary, and ladies and gentlemen, that the next vessel 
to come from the Cushing ship-yards will be the most 
perfect fighting machine ever devised by the brain 
and hand of man. It is already, as it begins to take 
shape in my mind, destined to excel any type yet 


BRANDER CUSHING 


43 


devised. I do not hesitate to say, in this presence, 
that it is the greatest ambition of my life to give to 
the navy in this last and largest battleship the most 
perfect and splendid warship ever built, of which 
the admiralty and the country shall have no reason 
to be ashamed.” 

He spoke a few minutes longer, and with perfect 
good taste finished and sat down at exactly the right 
moment. 

The applause exceeded even that given the Secre- 
tary himself. And that personage, good-naturedly 
acknowledged it as he leaned over and held out his 
hand as the guests were leaving after the final crash 
of “ The Star-spangled Banner ” by the band. 

“You made the speech of the evening, Cushing. 
I look to see your life ambition realized in the new 
vessel.” 

Miss Marston passed close to Sidney as she and 
her father were going out. 

“Don’t forget about that call if you come to 
Washington, Mr. Cushing, will you? ” 

“ I certainly will not forget, if you want me to 
remember. Do you ? ” 

The girl hesitated, blushed, looked down, then up 
again, let her eyes look full into his and said: 

“Yes.” 

Sidney felt the same sense of audacity on his part 
which he had experienced at the launching. And all 
the way home he dwelt upon it. There was some- 
thing about Pax Marston’s manner — But after he 
had fallen asleep, he waked with a nervous start. 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


U 

At once he went over the scene of the fire. Those 
bodies, falling, falling, the helplessness of it all, 
the uselessness of it all; how fearful to stand there 
unable to do anything! The sweat came out on his 
face in great beads of agony as he recalled its hor- 
ror. Again he was racing up the stairs of the 
double-decker, crashing into people running down, 
panting and gasping, crying out silently, Wait 1 
Wait!” 

Again the girl at the window opposite. She was 
not a real person. There was no feature to be rec- 
ognized. Only a face blackened and blurred, her 
very hands burning — were they burning ? It seemed 
so; but she was talking calmly to the panic-stricken 
girls, a strong girl, a brave girl ! Hermosa ! Her- 
mosa ! Hermosa ! ” The flame and smoke spelled 
it on his brain. And its fantastic refrain was beat- 
ing back and forth with the word Athanasia ! 
Athanasia! Athanasia!” Now the board was 
slipping under his foot, he felt it going, he could not 
stop it. Again, those bodies falling, falling — would 
the picture never leave him? 

In the morning, when he and his father sat down 
to breakfast at the usual hour, each noted the un- 
usual in the other’s face. 

‘‘Yesterday was a trying day for you, Sid. 
They’ve got you in the papers, all right. ‘ Daring 
deed of heroism on part of Sidney Cushing, son of 
Brander Cushing of the ship-yards,’ etc. ‘ Saves 
lives of dozen girls at risk of his own!’ Your pic- 
ture is here, too. Where did they get that?” 


BRANDER CUSHING 


45 


don’t know.” 

Brander Cushing was evidently proud of the 
prominence given his son’s part in the newspaper 
account. He read eagerly but with no outward sign 
of emotion. 

Over a hundred victims, Sid. It was a horrible 
thing. Horrible! Do you want to see the paper? ” 

He passed it across the table and took up his 
coffee. 

“ No, father, I don’t care to read it. What is 
the use? I dreamed of it all night.” 

He pushed the paper back, and his father picked 
it up again as if attracted and repelled by some- 
thing that suddenly caught his eye. 

He turned the pages over. Pause. 

“There’s a full account of the banquet. The 
speeches are given in full. Admiral Marston’s plan 
for high school military drill provokes much favor- 
able comment at Washington and New York.” 

“You made the best speech of the evening, 
father.” 

“ Thank you, Sid. I would rather hear you say 
it than the Secretary.” 

He glanced through the banquet report, and then 
turned the leaves back to the first page, which 
featured the naval factory holocaust. Something 
there seemed to fascinate him. He glanced up two 
or three times at Sidney as if he were in doubt; 
then, in his usual direct, bold manner, he said: 
“Fleming has issued his ultimatum.” 

“What is that, father?” 


46 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Fleming, the county attorney, is reported here 
as threatening to bring a case against us for failure 
to provide fire escapes.” 

‘‘ Let me see.” Sidney put out his hand for the 
paper. 

“ I’ll read it to you.” 

Brander Cushing read in an even tone : 

^ Loss of life heavy on account of failure to 
provide fire escapes on the side next the double- 
decker. Brander Cushing and the ship-yard com- 
pany are said to be liable. County Attorney Flem- 
ing says he will push the investigation no matter 
who suffers. The grand jury will bring indict- 
ments. Fire marshal’s notice was served ten weeks 
ago. Under the new law all owners of buildings re- 
quiring fire-escapes must act within four weeks of 
marshal’s notice. Where notice has not been given, 
the owners of buildings are not liable. It is up to 
the marshal to furnish proof that such notice has 
been legally served. The ship-yard firm will have to 
give reason, if any, why the law was not obeyed. 
Looks as if Brander Cushing and the company would 
have to face a serious charge. The indictment will 
be “ criminal negligence.” This under the stat- 
ute is punishable by a fine of $1,000 and five years 
in State prison.’” 

Brander Cushing paused in his even-toned reading 
and looked over at his son. Sidney was staring, 
white-faced and still. 

“ Five years in State prison,” repeated Brander 
Cushing softly, and went on: 


BRANDER CUSHING 


47 


^ There is a tremendous feeling in the factory 
district over this horrible affair. Threats of all 
sorts are being made. Those who have lost children 
and relatives are frenzied and dazed by the calamity. 
We do not envy the ship-yard company. It is stated 
on Mr. Cushing’s authority that full compensation 
will be granted the sufferers. But compensation in 
money will not satisfy the people. It looks as if 
some one would have to be punished for violation of 
the law, and County Attorney Fleming says he will 
push the case to the limit. If the marshal’s notice 
was served duly, as we understand it was, then it 
looks like a hard case for Brander Cushing and the 
ship-yard.’ ” 

You understand, of course, Sid, that this is the 
fine hand of Mr. Alfred Fleming. The Morning 
Megaphone is his organ. I don’t expect any mercy 
from him, and I won’t get any.” 

But, father ! Is there no way ? — think of it ! 
State prison — disgrace ! — all ” 

There is always a way. I don’t expect to go to 
prison any more than Fleming. Leave it with me.” 

But the marshal’s ” 

Brander Cushing finished his coffee and deliber- 
ately rose. 

Don’t let it worry you, Sid. I am not afraid of 
Fleming nor all his gang. I have whipped them be- 
fore and I will do it this time.” 

The bell rang. 

The servant was going out. 

‘^If it’s reporters, Angus, tell them I’ll talk with 


48 


A BUILDER OR SHIPS 


them down at the ship-yard office a? ten o’clock.” 

Angus came back. 

I’ve given your message, sir, and they say they 
will not leave until they have seen you, sir.” 

Well, they can see me down at the yard. I will 
not talk to them here.” 

Angus went out; Brander Cushing grimly took 
down his hat and, after a moment of indecision, 
started to go out into the hall. 

Father ! ” Sidney, stretching out his arms, ap- 
pealed almost with a sob: ‘‘You’ll let me — you will 
not forget — ^I will stand by you In this affair.” 

“I know you will, Sid. Don’t fear. There’s a 
way out. We’ll go down to the yard together.” 

When the two came out of the house, there stood 
a group of newspaper men waiting for them. 

Brander Cushing walked straight by and was out 
on the sidewalk before one of the reporters spoke. 

“ You might as well talk, Mr. Cushing. You’ll 
have to, you know, sooner or later.” 

“ I won’t talk here. I told you I wouldn’t. 
Down at the office.” 

. The group of newspaper men continued to follow. 
To all their questions Cushing answered never a 
word. He mended his pace, Sidney striding along 
by him. The reporters found it the fastest walking 
they ever knew. Two or three stayed by, but the 
rest rushed to the trolley and made for the ship- 
yard. 

When the two arrived they found some of the news- 
paper group waiting them. 


BRANDER CUSHING 


49 


Brander Cushing told Sidney to go up to the 
draughting room, and went himself into his office, 
where he faced the entire party of reporters, now 
increased in number to seven. 

I take it the same statements will answer for 
all you boys. What do you want to know? ” 

About the proposed indictment by the grand 
jury. What have you to say ? ” 

« Nothing.” 

Pause. 

Fleming says he will push the investigation to 
the limit. Your company owned the factory?” 

We are the sole owners.” 

Then about those fire escapes ? ” 

They had been ordered.” 

But not constructed. How about the marshal’s 
notice? ” 

“ I never received any.” 

Blank stare of real surprise from the newspaper 
crowd. 

Pencils worked fast. 

You mean ” 

“ The marshal never served any notice. It was 
my own initiative to put the escapes on the build- 
ing and the work was to commence this week. 
I don’t mind showing you my memorandum on 
it.” 

Brander Cushing went to his office safe, opened it, 
took out a box, took a sheaf of papers from it and 
handed one over to the reporter who had been spokes- 
man for the others. 


50 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


The (document went from hand to hand. It was 
the same he had mentioned to Sidney. 

‘‘ My great regret is that my orders were not 
carried out, and loss of life was the result. No one 
can regret this more than myself. The company 
will make every compensation possible. We do not 
feel responsible for the fire. It occurred from a 
leaky gas main.” 

‘‘ The people who lost relatives and friends are 
very much determined to bring somebody to time 
for the affair. Some one must be punished. What 
do you say about Fleming’s attitude.? ” 

“ I prefer not to discuss it.” 

“Fleming says he will bring everything to bear 
to get the grand jury to bring indictments.” 

Silence on Brander Cushing’s part. He had made 
up his mind not to say a word about Fleming, no 
matter what happened. 

After a few unimportant queries the reporters 
went away, taking with them, as the most vital part 
of their interview, a copy of the memorandum made 
by Cushing ordering the building of the fire-escapes 
on the factory. 

To every man of affairs, at some time or other, 
there comes a special and critical period of testing. 
Every man who has ever made any chapter of real 
life has had his temptation, and his defeat or victory. 
From it he comes either in the power of the Spirit 
to turn the world upside down, or he slinks back 
into the desert a defeated and lost soul. 

Brander Cushing now stood at such a parting of 
the ways. 


BRANDER CUSHING 


51 


For fifty-six years he had lived what would be 
called an exemplary business life; that is to say, he 
had lived according to the code into which he was 
born. As a matter of fact, the corporation which 
supplied the material he dealt with, and in which 
he was a large factor, was the most gigantic combina- 
tion of selfish purposes the world has ever seen. But 
personally, Brander Cushing was the soul of honor 
up to this time in his life. He was not individually 
a liar or a thief. His word in the business world 
was a synonym for honesty and probity. He had 
a scorn that was high bred for small vices. He was 
a gentleman of repute. He was a man of deep self- 
respect. 

Yet as he closed the office door on the newspaper 
men, and then went back and sat down by his desk, 
he realized that a crisis had swiftly come in his 
own character. In other words, he had committed 
himself to a course which might spell for him dis- 
grace in the eyes of the public, and worse than that, 
disgrace in the sight of his son. 

He rapidly went over the steps that had led him 
to his present position. 

1. The marshal’s notice had been legally served 
on him ten days before he had made the memorandum 
he had shown the reporters. 

2. But his knowledge of affairs in the marshal’s 
office had led him to believe that no record of such 
notice was on file with the fire department, which 
had, under the present management, been run on 
very loose lines. This guess on his part had been 
made a certainty by investigation on his way home 


52 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


from the scene of the fire the day before. He had 
gone up to the headquarters. Only a clerk or two 
remained in the room of the records. It was not 
difficult to ascertain, as he turned over the books, 
that in all probability the record of such notice had 
not been kept. He was a shrewd business man, but 
he was risking his case largely on that failure. 

S. A deputy had served the paper. Only himself 
and Sidney were present in the office when it oc- 
curred. 

4. In a contest between his word and that of a 
deputy fire marshal there could be no question as 
to results. 

5. The crucial point with him now was the fact 
that the notice had been served when his son was 
present, and he had already mentioned this to 
him. 

6. But — and here he found himself on the thin 
edge of self-distrust — Sidney had been, all his life 
long, trained to habits of implicit faith in his father. 
He had never once questioned that iron will and de- 
termination which had brought Brander Cushing up 
from the obscure place of a black-faced, grimy foun- 
dry boy to the proud position of head of the great- 
est ship-yard in the United States. 

7. The question now rose, would this lifelong habit 
of obedience result in silence on Sidney’s part in face 
of such denial of an incriminating fact.^ 

8. In doubt over this, it was imperative that he 
should be absent during the time of the grand jury’s 
sitting and findings. 


BRANDER CUSHING 


53 


9. How to accomplish the seemingly Impossible 
in the face of a modern world of universal news dis- 
semination and knowledge was now one of the fore- 
most thoughts of Brander Cushing. 

10. But he recalled the fact that Sidney had a 
unique scorn of newspapers. He rarely read them. 
He was singular, as a young man, in his contempt of 
daily gossip. It was no unusual thing for his father 
to read the main news aloud as the two sipped their 
coffee at breakfast, and then to his father’s positive 
knowledge Sidney never so much as glanced at a 
daily again. 

11. There was, to be sure, the ever-present risk 
of what people might say. How could plain facts 
in such a case as this ever be kept from the knowl- 
edge of his son? 

12. But — and here was his desperate running of 
chances as he had swiftly made them for himself — 
under any and all conditions the acknowledgment of 
the receipt of the marshal’s notice spelled almost 
certain indictment for him. He was shrewd enough 
to know that under the popular feeeling, with a 
powerful and hostile man like Fleming, an old politi- 
cal enemy, to give the feeling direction, even the 
wealth and influence of such a firm as his could not 
and would not prevent a verdict from the grand jury 
that would be fatal to him. At any risk he must 
save himself. And again and again the one weak 
point in it all was the legal point that he had been 
Jduly served, and had refused to act. If he could 
by; any means show the public that he was not guilty 


54 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


of criminal negligence he believed he could trust to 
the reaction of public censure and escape. 

13. The law was an absurdity. He struck his 
hand with passion on his desk, as he cursed a stat- 
ute that had been passed by a so-called reform legis- 
lature in a spasm of righteousness just after a simi- 
lar horror to this which had so suddenly become a 
part o^ his own history. 

14. He had not meant to involve himself in such 
a situation. It was simply maddening. He, Bran- 
der Cushing, stern, cold, self-contained, successful 
business man, with a reputation for general steadi- 
ness of purpose, driven like a child into a lie for 
fear of punishment — it seemed like a vile nightmare, 
a thing he once — yes, less than eight hours ago — 
would have laughed at as impossible. But — Sid- 
ney ! Ah ! There was, after all, his one great fear. 

The sweat stood on Brander Cushing’s face in 
beads. He got up and walked across the length of 
the office; then suddenly he pushed a button and in 
response to an answer from the draughting room 
asked Sidney to come down to the office at once. 

When Sidney appeared he found his father seated, 
cool, calm, and direct as usual. 

“ I want you to go to Washington.” 

Washington ! ” 

‘‘ At once. I need some plans from the navy de- 
partment. And there is a very important matter 
to go over with Mansfield at the patent office about 
those water valves. Look that up. Take time for 
it. How soon can you start? ” 


BRANDER CUSHING 


55 


Sidney looked surprised. 

‘‘ At any time. I thought you said at once.” 

I did. Your bag is here. You can leave on 
No. 9. It goes at 10:15.” 

“ But this affair of the grand jury, the fire, 
the ” 

Leave it to me, Sid. I can take care of 
it.” 

But I don’t feel right to leave you here to face 
it alone. You know that, don’t you. Pater ” 

“Yes, yes. But you needn’t worry.” 

Sidney went into the cloakroom and got his bag 
and came out looking at his father wistfully and 
with a little perplexity. 

“ Here are notes on the patents. Mansfield is up 
on all details. But of course take nothing for 
granted. You don’t need to hurry. Stay a week 
or ten days. And, by the way, didn’t I hear Admi- 
ral Marston, or was it Miss Marston, invite you to 
call if you came to Washington ” 

“Miss Marston.” Sidney blushed. 

“ It’s all right, Sid. I don’t object to your look- 
ing in that direction.” 

Silence on Sidney’s part. He was not ready to 
make a confidant even of his father concerning the 
emotions Pax Marston had already created in him. 
Already the thought of meeting her dimmed the first 
impulse of resolve to beg his father not to send him 
to Washington at this crisis. 

“Plenty of money, Sid.^” 

“ I think so.” 


56 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


‘‘Don’t spare. Your account is more than 
enough. If not, draw on me.” 

“Thank you, father, I have enough. Is that 
all? ” 

His father gave him a bundle of papers and Sid- 
ney put them into the bag. 

“ Yes. I believe that is all. Don’t hurry. If 
you feel like it stay a couple of weeks. Congress is 
in session and you will enjoy seeing the bear-fight. 
There’s your friend Gordon ; have a good visit with 
him. And perhaps you don’t know it, but the Sec- 
retary of War took a great fancy to you. He may 
invite you to luncheon. And, Sid — I have my rea- 
sons — promise not to read the papers for the next 
few days.” 

Sidney moved toward the door, slowly. 

“ All right, sir. I’m sick of the papers. I trust 
you to manage it all right. You’re sure I ought not 
to stay just now ” 

“ No, no. I can attend to Fleming. I don’t need 
you.” 

Sidney went out feeling uncertain. Once on the 
train he began to anticipate his Washington trip. 
Late that afternoon he put his hand in his pocket 
and took out the bow of ribbon he had risked his 
life to get. He looked at it a moment and his dark 
face glowed. 

Brander Cushing’s habit of business was never 
fixed. This morning he was all over the ship-yard 
in the three hours before noon, after Sidney had 
gone. The complexity of the place presented no 


BRANDER CUSHING 


57 


puzzles to him. He knew it as a master machinist 
knows the engine he has built, and he was passion- 
ately devoted to it in all its details. 

His first trip had been to the great draughting 
room, where the lines of the new warship were being 
chalked out on the floor of the vast loft. He stayed 
there a few minutes to give directions and then 
plunged down to the engineering rooms. From 
there he went out to the yard itself, under the glass- 
covered roof, and stood a moment on a piece of steel 
sheeting, looking over the whole scene. 

The ways were being prepared for the laying of 
the keel of the new ship. Cushing’s rapid glance 
took in every minute detail. 

He called one of the yard foremen to him: 

“ Stuart, send McDonald here a moipent, will you, 
please? ” 

Stuart looked queerly at Cushing. 

McDonald is not here this morning.” 

Not here? ” 

‘^His two girls were killed in the fire yesterday. 
He is at home getting ready for the funerals to- 
morrow.” 

Brander Cushing braced his feet as if he feared 
to fall from a blow. 

Funerals ! Stuart, I ” 

He did not dare say he had almost forgotten that 
horror already. But the truth is, as soon as he 
had gone up to the room where those fascinating 
chalk lines curved their story under his eyes, his 
whole soul had flung itself around his remaining 


58 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


life ambition, the building of the best and greatest 
warship in the world. 

‘‘ Are any other men in the saipe ” 

Fifty absent this morning, Mr. Cushing,” Stu- 
art answered curtly ; and I can’t answer for some 
others. They’re ugly, Mr. Cushing — ugly is the 
word. You can see for yourself.” 

Cushing was a brave man. He walked down 
through the yard. Not a man touched his cap or 
greeted him. In reply to his Good morning,” not 
a word. There was clang of hammer, clank of chain, 
whistles up aloft by the cage that worked the run- 
ning crane, the jar and resonance and whirr of that 
which was not like any other place on earth, but 
the silence of death surrounded Brander Cushing 
as he walked among the workmen. It seemed to him 
that a conspiracy existed. He asked a man a ques- 
tion. No answer. He asked another. The man 
laid down a tool, picked it up, laid it down, again, 
spit on his hands, and looked Cushing squarely in 
the face, but did not say a word. 

When Cushing had gone back into his office, the ' 
sweat stood on his face again as it had after his 
Interview with the reporters. During that walk 
through the yard he had sensed what distrust is from 
men who, up to this time, had at least respected if 
they had not loved him. 

He went out from habit to get the first edition 
of the afternoon paper. 

An old man near the main yard entrance usually 
furnished him a copy. 


BRANDER CUSHING 


59 


He was not there. 

Where’s Andrew ” he asked one of the office 
bookkeepers just going out to get luncheon. 

His granddaughter was in the fire yesterday.” 

Brander Cushing bought the paper elsewhere and 
went back to the office. 

It was now after one o’clock. He was not hun- 
gry and did not go out with the rest of the office 
force. 

The early edition contained in full his interview 
with the reporters. It was a fair report, and spe- 
cial emphasis was laid on the statement that no 
papers had been served on him by the marshal’s of- 
fice but that he had of his own initiative been mak- 
ing plans for the fire escapes and other safety appli- 
ances. Technically, therefore, the ship-yard com- 
pany was not guilty. 

But following the interview with Cushing appeared 
another with the fire marshal, in which he plainly 
denounced Brander Cushing as a liar, asserted that 
notice had been duly served, yet when driven to make 
proof was obliged to admit that no such proof could 
be found on record in the office of the department. 

This to a great extent lessened the strength of 
the charge against Cushing’s truthfulness, and made 
the editorial comment seem entirely plausible: 

The matter simply comes down to a question of 
veracity between a deputy fire marshal and a man 
like Brander Cushing. And every one who knows 
Cushing will be inclined to side with him. It looks 


60 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


as if it were up to the marshal to explain the care- 
less and loose methods of his department. If any 
person is going to have indictments drawn against 
him by the grand jury, it looks as if it would be 
Fire Marshal Marks and not Brander Cushing. If 
he was morally to blame for not making proper pro- 
vision for the safety of the factory operatives he is 
at least legally innocent, and the jury will have to 
take that into account in making its findings. At- 
torney Fleming will have to change his tactics in 
order to find the party responsible for the terrible 
tragedy of yesterday.” 

Brander Cushing smiled grimly as he read. If 
there was any one in all the world he hated with a 
sound, undying animosity it was Silas Fleming, his 
old political enemy, the man who had for years been 
trying to hinder him in the work of his life. 

Between three and four o’clock a clerk came to the 
office, where, after another round through the yard, 
Brander Cushing had gone, to sit down and with a 
steady frown go over certain points again which 
had occupied him just after his Interview with the 
reporters. 

“ The county attorney wants to see you, Mr. 
Cushing.” 

« Who.?” 

‘^Mr. Fleming.” 

Pause. 

‘‘ What shall I say to him, sir ? ” 

«Tell him ni see him.” 


BRANDER CUSHING 


61 


The attorney came in and Cushing calmly invited 
him to take a seat. Before doing so, Fleming shut 
the door and Cushing closed the one leading into a 
rear office where most of his personal draughting 
and planning were carried on. 

I came to see you, Mr. Cushing, about this news- 
paper article.” Fleming had a paper in his hand 
and spread it out on his knees. He was a very 
large man, and as he leaned over toward Cushing, 
the heavy folds of skin on his hands, which lay on 
the paper, looked red and coarse by contrast with 
Brander Cushing’s firm white hands, which he had 
clasped together over his knee. 

« Well.? ” 

In this article ” 

“ Wait. I am not informed concerning the ob- 
ject of this call. As my time is exceedingly valu- 
able, perhaps you had better tell me what is the real 
object of your coming.” 

“ I told you it was to see you about this article.” 

Well, the object — the object of that.?” 

The object.? The object.?” 

‘^Yes, sir. The object of your discussing the 
article in question.” 

“ There can be but one, and you know what it is.” 

I do not know. The article you mention proves 
clearly to the public that I am no more legally re- 
sponsible for the loss at the fire than yourself. The 
grand jury will indict you as soon as me. There- 
fore I don’t see the object of your visit and I beg 
to say I am very busy.” 


62 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


County Attorney Fleming hitched his big bulk up 
an inch nearer the ship contractor. ^ 

“You will see the object of my coming in a min- 
ute, Mr. Cushing. This marshal’s notice — you say 
it was never served. Will you swear to a court that 
such is the fact? ” 

“ It is none of your business to examine me.” 

Mr. Cushing, I have a special reason for seeing 
you and I am impervious to insult. You have al- 
lowed me to come in here and I take it you are more 
or less curious to know why I came. We understand 
we’re in the game to fight it out. But I’m not alto- 
gether depraved, and I don’t want to see you make 
the mistake of your life. You know the deputy did 
serve you the papers. I would be willing to wager 
they are somewhere in this office now.” 

Brander Cushing sat there looking at the big 
hulk of the attorney, with a feeling in his heart of 
enraged astonishment. What did the man mean? 
What made him so positive? What was he driving 
at? There was politics in it somewhere, but where 
he could not determine. But of one thing he was 
certain : No power on earth could make him acknowl- 
edge to Silas Fleming that his guess about the mar- 
shal’s notice was true. 

“ You are on the wrong tack. The papers are 
not here, because I never received them.” 

Fleming leaned over until his fat forefinger almost 
touched Cushing’s white hand. 

“ Would you swear now that the papers are not 
right there in that safe, in a drawer with a key in 


BRANDER CUSHING 


63 


it? ” The forefinger swung around and pointed at 
the safe. 

Brander Cushing’s heart leaped up in a torrent of 
rage. As a matter of fact, however, Fleming had 
guessed it; the papers were in that identical spot. 
He cursed his indecision in not having destroyed them 
that morning. He rose and in a tone of thunder 
said : 

“ Leave this office, you impertinent whelp ! ” 

Fleming stood up. 

“ Open the safe and prove that the papers are not 
there and I’ll leave.” 

Get out ! ” Cushing advanced on him, his eye 
gleaming. 

Fleming backed to the door. There he paused. 

I am going without having said why I really 
came. If you were willing to take me into your con- 
fidence I could make it worth while. As it is ” 

«Well?” 

‘‘I shall simply subpoena your son as a witness. 
He was here when the deputy served the papers. 
The deputy swears he was present. I will see 
whether he will perjure himself to save you.” 

Brander Cushing gave a cry that Fleming had 
never heard before. The two men stood there in 
silence confronting each other. 


CHAPTER III 


ADMIRAL MARSTON AND HIS DAUGHTER; ED MARS- 
TON ; STORY OF THE RESCUE ; THE EXPLOSIVE TEST ; 
SIDNEY AND PAX ; THE GIRl’s STATEMENT THAT 
SENDS SIDNEY BACK TO DOCKVILLE. 

W ASHINGTON was only four hours’ ride from 
Dockville, and Sidney arrived at 3:30 p. m. 
He went to his hotel, and from there Immediately to 
the patent office, in obedience to his father’s instruc- 
tions. At the office he learned that Mansfield had 
been called suddenly to Annapolis and would not 
return for two days. So there was nothing to do but 
wait, and meanwhile there was his promised call at 
Admiral Marston’s. He decided to go that even- 
ing. 

When he was ushered into the house he was greeted 
by the admiral himself, who came out of a little office 
room opening up from the far end of the drawing- 
room. Marston was eccentric in many ways, in 
spite of being commonplace in many more, and 
among his eccentricities was a room in his house the 
duplicate and counterpart of his private cabin on 
board the 'Republic, This room was the cause of 
constantly polite differences between the admiral’s 
wife and himself, but had never reached any really 
dangerous stage. 

“ Mrs. Marston and Pax will be home soon. You 
64 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


65 


must stay to dinner^ We dine en famille. And, by 
good luck, nephew Ed is with us. You can tell us 
that story. Capital I You couldn’t have come at a 
better time.” 

The admiral was very enthusiastic for him. Sid- 
new easily complied with the invitation, and found 
himself awaiting the entrance of Pax and her mother 
with almost nervous eagerness. 

When they finally came in, followed shortly after- 
ward by the young lieutenant, Ed Marston, Sidney 
was more than gratified at the kindly reception given 
him. 

Mrs. Marston was a large, stiff-minded woman, 
very plain of feature and simple of dress. Sidney 
liked her. Ed was an overgrown, self-sufficient, 
loud-talking young cub, and it took nearly the whole 
evening for Sidney to decide whether he liked him 
or not. Pax Marston was all he anticipated. Why 
had he anticipated anything? He did not know, but 
he had, and she seemed to know it. Was the girl 
unmaidenly? He chided himself at the thought. 
But she certainly did not hesitate to let him see that 
she was really glad to meet him again. 

At the table she sat beside him, and between the 
easy exchange of varied talk led him on finally to 
relate the details of his part in the rescue of Cousin 
Ed, at the time the hawser snapped and swept the 
young officer into the water. 

“ There really is not much to tell. I was sitting 
on the dock that evening watching the transports 
and cruisers go out. Father had been busy in the 


66 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


navj" yard all day, and I had been helping him. 
About the time the Del Monte pulled out he asked 
me to go down with one of the departing officers — I 
think it was Lieutenant Brooks — and from him get 
a sketch of the Del Monte^s forward bulkhead which 
father wanted for comparison with the Aloah, I 
had gone on board, got what I wainted, and had 
come off again and sat down on the dock nearly 
opposite the forward capstan. 

“ When the hawser snapped, it looked from where 
I sat like a coil of green serpent. I could see a 
number of men jump back, and then the end of the 
cable leaped right up off the deck like a live thing, 
and I knew one of the men was caught.” 

“ Me,” said Ed Marston. He had been listening 
to Sidney’s account with great boyish interest. At 
that point Sidney began to like him. 

Yes, you. I had never been introduced, but it 
seemed to me a proper thing to get intimate with 
you at once. When you dropped into the water you 
were so near me that your feet knocked my hat 
off.” 

“ I’ll get you a new one ! ” shouted Ed. 

That’s two hats you’ve lost, Mr. Cushing,” said 
Pax demurely, ‘‘I wonder who y^ill pay for the 
other.” 

All in the family,” Sidney said, before he real- 
ized how it might sound. 

The admiral and Mrs. Marston looked puzzled. 
Pax laughed and blushed. Sidney bit his tongue and 
Ed Marston stared. 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


67 


“ Then,” went on Sidney hurriedly, it was a 
very simple and easy thing for me to slip down into 
the water and grab you,” looking gravely at the 
young officer. “ You were wedged in between two 
of the piles, lucky for both of us, for the Del Monte 
had swung in so close that if there hadn’t been an 
opening there big enough for both of us I am afraid 
we wouldn’t either of us be here to-night.” 

“ That would be too bad.” 

I’m glad you feel so. Well, after that, there 
isn’t much to tell. I must say. Admiral Marston, 
that the crew of the Del Monte acted with wonderful 
quickness and precision. Two of them were over 
the side in less than half a minute and a score were 
ready to go if the space had allowed. The cruiser 
was warped out, and in less than five minutes Mr. 
Marston was on board. All I did was to hold on 
to him until the two men of the crew came to my 
assistance. 

Naturally I climbed back on the dock, and being 
a little wet decided to make for home as fast as I 
could. It was dark and the crowd on the dock had 
rushed back when the hawser whipped ashore. I 
had been sitting at the extreme end of the dock and 
when I climbed out I found I had landed at the other 
side of the freight partition, where passengers are 
not permitted. I was entirely alone. Lucky for 
me the gate had been left open, and I ran out, took 
a car and got home. That’s all.” 

‘^Most extraordinary,” quoth Admiral Marston, 
looking earnestly at Sidney. Of course I did my 


68 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


utmost to find you, but without avail. It is strange 
you did not see what was in the papers.” 

“ I seldom read them.” 

After they had gone into the drawing-room Admi- 
ral Marston took up the story again. 

“ I can’t get it out of my head how the part you 
took in such an event could miss getting into print. 
Surely you must have spoken of it to some one.?^ ” 

I don’t think so.” 

Not to your father.? ” 

‘‘I think not, sir.” 

Most extraordinary. Do you do these things 
every day, that they become so commonplace.? ” 
Sidney laughed. Pax Marston was looking a? 
him, her blue eyes soft with that most entrancing of 
all looks, the gaze of awed hero-worship. He would 
have been more stupid than this story describes him 
if he had not seen and felt it. 

Why, father, don’t you remember the account in 
the Star day before yesterday.? Mr. Cushing did 
get into the papers that time.” 

Ah, yes. That terrible naval factory fire,” said 
Mrs. Marston. What a wonderful thing you 
could save some of those girls ! ” 

Sidney was overwhelmed with requests to tell more. 
His confusion increased under the hero-worship that 
surrounded him. He tried to make light of it all. 
But the moment he began to talk about it he saw 
again, as he had seen every night since in his dreams, 
those silent bodies falling, falling, falling. JVould 
they never cease falling? 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


69 


He must have told the story with great effective- 
ness, after all. For when he finished, Pax and her 
mother were crying, and even Ed looked grave. 

Before he went away that night, after basking in 
the warmth of a hero-worship that he had never 
known at home, because his father took for granted 
the athletic and unusual, Sidney made an appoint- 
ment with young Marston to go down to the testing- 
grounds where some new armor and explosives were 
being tried out. Then in the afternoon the young 
men were to join the admiral and Mrs. Marston and 
Pax on an excursion of inspection of harbor de- 
fenses down the river. As this was to be made on 
one of the government cruisers, and the occasion 
would in all probability make it possible for him to 
have a little more personal conversation with Pax, 
Sidney anticipated the day with great delight, inas- 
much as the business matters at the patent office 
would be delayed the rest of the week. 

How many people, outside of a few experts, really 
ever know anything about the fearful and enormous 
equipment for warfare going on in this world two 
thousand years after the birth of the Prince of 
Peace? How many, for example, know that this 
Christian nation owns a murdering machine fifty 
feet long, weighing S60,000 pounds, consuming 61S 
pounds of smokeless powder per charge, firing a 
projectile weighing 2,400 pounds through twenty- 
three and a half inches of Krupp steel armor, and 
having a range of almost nine miles — a monster 
butchering machine ! 


70 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


The United States Government has a sixteen-inch 
caniy)n. It can throw a shot weighing ^,000 pounds 
to an extreme range of twenty-one miles, and has an 
effective range of twelve miles. It has been fired 
f6ur times. 

Our two young men, reared in civilization, en- 
thusiastic and intelligent, students of guns, armor, 
military tactics and war in general, went out together 
next morning to the experiment firing stations, in 
high good spirits with themselves and one an- 
other. 

“ We’re lucky to get in on this,” said Marston to 
Cushing. Old Unc’ Marston, of course, gives us 
this chance. It ain’t every day we could get it.” 

“ There will be some fine tests, I understand.” 

‘‘ Fine ! If old General Stater doesn’t blow his 
head off with that bloxine it [will be great fun. It 
will if he does, too.” 

When they reached the experiment grounds, Mars- 
ton introduced Sidney to several officers, mostly 
young men, with a few older students of explosives 
and new modern range-finders. 

The first experiment of the day was to be with 
the new explosive, bloxine. Every one present 
gravely inserted little wads of cotton into his ears. 
The target was on a side hill seven miles distant. It 
could be seen with the telescope and officers’ field- 
glasses, as a black spot against a sand-bank. In 
reality it was composed of a frame of oak planking 
nine inches thick, fifteen by twenty-five feet in sur- 
face. Upon this oak planking was riveted armor 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


71 


plate twelve inches thick. Over that was a covering 
of seven inches of seasoned maple and outside of that 
another armor of nine-inch steel plate. 

The sixteen-inch gun was swung into position. Its 
ponderous machinery, delicately adjusted as a 
watch, was manipulated by the engineer. 

‘‘ All ready, sir.” 

The new explosive was to receive its first test. 
The inventor, an old man of stolid appearance, was 
present. His face showed no sign of nervousness. 
Most of the military men exhibited some degree of 
doubt or uneasiness. 

" ,The order to fire was given by the gun sergeant. 

A roar that smote the ear-drums like the impact 
of a direct blow from a steel hammer ; a shock of the 
earth under foot which caused every man to reel 
and stagger and two or three of them to fall; a 
backward leap of the gun on its great frame that 
tugged with giant arms to break away, so fierce 
that something snapped and pieces fiew into the air 
like missiles hurled from an opposing weapon; the 
hurtling of a monster ball surrounded by an oily, 
greenish vapor; and all eyes straining through the 
field-glasses to note the result. A second later a 
gray cloud of enormous size appeared on the side- 
hill. 

Sidney, with his field-glass searching for that 
small black square on the hillside, could not believe 
his eyes. 

«What! A hole?” 


That’s all!” 


72 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


The inventor was speaking. His eyes gleamed. 
« That’s all.” 

‘‘ By Jove ! ” said Ed Marston, “ I’m glad I wasn’t 
sneaking behind that target for safety. JVky, there 
isn’t even a toothpick left ! ” . 

The officer in charge came over to tlie inventor. 

“ I congratulate you, Winter. If it goes thalE 
way, it’s your move with the Ordnance Committee,” 

He invited the two young men to get into the army] 
automobile and ride over to the site of the target. 
Sidney and Marston eagerly accepted. 

.When they reached the base of the hill, the party 
got out of the car and started to climb up to the 
place where the target had been. Before they had 
gone twenty steps, they all stopped, and in perfect 
silence stared at the place. 

The target had totally disappeared. In place of 
it was an unnatural gash which disclosed a deep 
gravel pit. Up and down the sides of this blackened 
chasm were strewn small fragments of wood and 
steel, not one piece as large as a man’s head. A 
bunch of trees, which had been standing fifty feet 
above the slope, leaned over the ghastly rent, their 
trunks shivered and branches split by the fearful ex- ' 
plosion. 

The army officers looked at one another. 

If we had had that thing at Malvern Hill, Jim ! ” 
a grayhaired veteran spoke to a comrade in a low 
voice. Somehow low tones seemed the fittest in this 
place. 

“ Um, yes ; but — it’s too deadly, somehow.” 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


73 


The experts took notes and the party scattered, 
going about the edge of the hole and making various 
comments. 

Ed Marston and Sidney climbed up ta examine 
the danger done to the trees on the bank above. 

Some of them were nearly uprooted by the fear- 
ful explosion. Their trunks were swaying out, lean- 
ing over the hole below. 

Ed Marston, with characteristic foolhardiness, 
climbed out on one of these trunks and sat down, 
dangling his legs over the space below. 

I say, Cushing, it wouldn’t have beeii a bad 
thing to put the owners of that naval factory be- 
hind that target and give ’em leave to make their get- 
away after they saw the smoke of the gun seven 
miles away.” 

Cushing was so silen? that Marston turned his 
head to look up at him. He was standing on the 
bank by the roots of the tree. 

“ My father is the owner of the naval factory.” 

“What? You don’t say! You don’t ” 

“Yes. The sole owner. That is, the ship-yard 
company ran it, and father is the company.” 

“ Well, of course, I — I — ^beg your pardon, Cush- 
ing. I had no idea ” 

Sidney was silent. He did not feel well enough 
acquainted yet to take Marston into full confidence. 

“ Your father’s all right, of course. He isn’t ” 

“ No. Father will come out of it all right.” Sid- 
ney spoke proudly, but in a way that even Ed 
Marston understood. 


74 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Awfully sorry I butted m.” 

‘‘That’s all right,” Sidney said, with a smile. 
“Shall we go along down? They’re beckoning to 
us.” 

On the way down, as they scrambled about over 
the confusion caused by the explosive, Marston 
again stammeringly started to express his apology 
for what he had said. 

“ You don’t need to say a word; I don’t mind it.” 

“You won’t let it get between us, will you?” 
Ed said eagerly. “ I begin to like you awfully, you 
know. I haven’t got such a lot of friends ,* somehow 
they can’t stand my careless habits, I guess. But I 
had an idea you were the sort of fellow to under- 
stand.” 

“ I do,” said Sidney, with his compelling smile. 
“ If I was going to hold a grudge against you, you 
would have known it before this. But I — I — don’t! 
We can be good friends. I — I like you all right.” 

“ Good I I thought you did. I don’t see how any 
one can help liking you.” 

“Don’t you?” Sidney laughed. “I appreciate 
it.” 

Back at the experiment grounds the remaining 
tests were with the modern rifle and repeating guns. 
How many people know that hundreds of inventors 
are eagerly working day and night to make these 
modern scientifically constructed killing machines? 

A high-grade modern rifle can be fired twenty-five 
times per minute. This gun will pierce sixty pine 
boards each one inch thick. It will kill a man at a 
distance of four miles. Experiments demonstrate 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


75 


that the best modern rifles will force a bullet through 
three human bodies at a range of 3,900 feet; and 
through five human bodies at 1,200 feet. In the 
American Civil War, bullets for long-range work 
had to be fired high, describing a long, high arch, 
thus missing all objects on the battlefield between 
the gun and the object aimed at. A bullet from a 
modern rifle will fly straight across the field for 
hundreds of yards with no elevation; even half a 
mile and more with but little elevation. 

One modern gatling gun will tear a board fence to 
pieces a mile away in four minutes, and at a range 
of one mile it will gnaw off a foot-thick pine post in 
seven minutes. 

It is reliably estimated that modern artillery is 
capable of doing one hundred and sixteen times more 
damage than the artillery used by the German army 
in 1870. Even the simple instrument known as the 
range-finder adds much to effectiveness; it enables 
soldiers to find the range in three minutes and pour 
death-dealing missiles into the opposing army. 

Is it any wonder that Sherman said at the close 
of the Civil War : “ I confess without shame that I 
am tired and sick of the war. Its glory is all moon- 
shine. Even success the most brilliant is over dead 
and mangled bodies, and anguish and lamentations 
of distant families appealing to me for missing sons, 
husbands and fathers. It is only those who have 
not heard a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans 
of the wounded and lacerated that cry aloud for 
more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.” 

Sidney and Marston, after the rifle and gun tests. 


76 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


went back to the city together, and at Marston’s 
eager invitation Sidney took lunch with him at a 
fashionable hotel. They were to join Admiral Mars- 
ton and Pax at two o’clock and had nearly an hour 
and a half before the time. 

There is nothing like a good appetizing luncheon 
for healthy, happy young men, to rapidly ripen a 
growing friendship. Sidney Cushing was frank but 
reserved; modest, but self-possessed. He found he 
was three years older than Marston. In judgment 
and gravity of deportment he was several years older. 
But he yielded fast to the glamour of that experi- 
ence (so fascinating), when one young man only a 
little older than a boy gives himself up to deep ad- 
miration and even affection for one a little his senior. 
And he was amazed with himself as the luncheon pro- 
ceeded, and Marston’s boyish enthusiasm bubbled 
oyer, to find how much he was willing to confide in 
one who was so near being a perfect stranger only a 
few hours ago. Marston’s conversational habits 
were absolutely without order. He talked at ran- 
dom. The only rule he seemed to observe was one 
that Sidney soon understood and liked. He never 
interrupted the person he was talking with and never 
anticipated. He let the speaker finish what he had 
to say and then waited a second as if to give room 
for more. This habit makes a good listener and un- 
consciously flatters one’s companion that what he has 
said is well worth considering. Aside from this one 
good habit, Marston was absolutely irregular and 
illogical in his talk. 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


77 


“ Winter will get a high price for his bloxine if he 
sells its secret to the government, won’t he?” 

“I suppose he will. Inventors, though, as a rule, 
don’t get much compared with the manufacturers.” 

‘‘Don’t they? Say, what kind of hat do you 
prefer? ” 

“ Any will do.” 

“If the manufacturer gets most of. the money, 
how do you suppose an inventor like Winter can 
scrape enough together to live so long? He must be 
nearly seventy.” 

“ All of that, I should say. He must live on 
hopes.” 

“ Yes. Oh, by the way, that other hat — when you 
were speaking last night, you remember, you said, or 
rather Pax said, ‘ That’s two hats you’ve lost, Mr. 
Cushing,’ and you said, ‘ I wonder who will pay for 
the other? ’ That sounds like another adventure. 
Are you willing to tell me ? ” 

“ I don’t mind.” Sidney colored a little, then 
laughed, and briefly related how he had lost his hat 
at the launching of the Republic, 

“ And you got the ribbons ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Got ’em with you? ” 

Pause on Sidney’s part. 

“ Yes.” 

“ Mind if I see ’em? I can tell if Pax ” 

“ No.” 

“ She likes you, I think. If that bloxine was 
packed in ferro-periphy-loxene don’t you think it 


78 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


would lessen the shock — the initial shock a little?” 

“ I am not a chemist. I don’t know.” 

‘‘ I’m no chemist either. I studied it two years 
and forgot it all in one. Still, as I say, I think Pax 
is fond of you.” 

Sidney was silent with dignified inward astonish- 
ment. 

“ I can’t get that factory fire out of my mind, 
Cushing. Those poor girls. Isn’t it wonderful you 
could save some of ’em? Two of ’em had queer 
names. Do you remember? ” 

Hermosa and Athanasia.” 

“ Jolly ! They sound made up. What sort of 
looking girls were they? ” 

I don’t believe I would know them if I were to 
meet them again.” 

“ What ? Haven’t they been around to thank 
you ? ” 

“ I left home the morning after the fire.” 

“ It must be great. Your father will ” 

He will get out all right. The county attorney 
will do his best to hurt him. I don’t have any fear, 
but I feel as if I ought to be with him.” 

“ That bloxine of old Winter would knock all the 
fortifications down the river into cocked hats. 
Which makes me think. Why not go out and get the 
new hat now? ” 

‘‘ Will you forget it? ” 

‘‘ No. But I want to ask Pax if she is going to get 
you another.” 

No. You will not do that.” 

« Why? ” 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


79 


Because I would rather not.” 

^‘Well, it’s about time to meet the party at the 
dock. Shall we get a cab.'^ 

“ Cab.?” 

Yes, or taxi.? ” 

Can’t you walk.? ” 

« Walk.? ” 

Yes.” 

A mile and a half ! ” 

Is it as far as that .? ” 

‘'Every foot.” 

“ Well, if we use every foot we have, won’t we get 
there in time.? ” 

“But — what are the taxis for.?” 

“ I’ve often wondered. But what are legs and feet 
for.?” 

“ I’ve often wondered. Not to walk with, when 
you can ride. You don’t actually mean that you pre- 
fer walking to riding.? ” 

“ I’m afraid I do. I learned to walk, my father 
says, when I was six months old.” 

“ Well, you are a strange animal. Don’t drink, 
don’t smoke, don’t ride when you can. Why doesn’t 
the Smithsonian get you for a specimen.? ” 

Silence, during which Marston is paying for the 
luncheon. 

When they came out on the street, Marston hailed 
a taxi. “ Really, don’t you want to ride.? ” he asked 
Sidney, 

“ No, Marston, if it’s all the same to you I would 
much rather walk if we have time.” 

“Oh, we’ve time enough. But — 'well, I will walk. 


80 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


but I’m not used to it. Whew! A mile and a half! 
What will Pax say to that? Are you willing I 
should tell her what kind of a fellow you are? ” 

‘^If you think you know on so brief an acquaint- 
ance.” 

“ Hi ! Here’s a hat store. Let’s get that off my 
mind and on your head.” 

They went into the store and Cushing after a 
little laughing protest accepted the new hat because 
he saw Marston really wanted to give it to him. 

“ Tell me something, Mr. Cushing, about the new 
battleship your father is planning. Will it beat the 
Republic? ” 

“ It is 5,000 tons larger. Father has set his heart 
on making it the finest warship afloat. 

Pax said she hoped they will let her christen it. 
Do you think they will? I told her only young wo- 
men were chosen to christen warships and she would 
be too old by the time this one was done. Do you 
think she will? ” 

I don’t know how old she is. The contract calls 
for three years on the new ship. Father thinks he 
can complete it in two and a half. 

“ I’d like a place on board. Think I stand any 
show to command her? Just think of being captain 
of the biggest and best warship afloat ! But what’s 
the use? There’s no war. If I was President or War 
Secretary I’d kick up a war with some one. What’s 
the use of all our war material if we never use it on 
anybody? ” 

^ JVhen the two young men arrived at the dock 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


81 


where the admiral’s cruiser was ready for the trip 
the question young Marston asked might well be 
asked by any number of young men in this civilized 
country. 

Our annual national expense of militarism, $450,- 
000,000, would pay the annual college expenses of 
1,800,000 young men and women; that is, of nearly 
twelve times as many as there were in the year end- 
ing June 30, 1908, in the five hundred and seventy- 
three colleges, universities and technological schools 
of the United States. 

Five per cent, interest on $450,000,000 for six 
minutes would provide $250 for a year’s college ex- 
penses. 

Five per cent, interest on one year’s expense of 
militarism in the United States for two weeks and 
three days would keep one full regiment (1,000 
young men) in college for four years. 

Less than seven per cent, interest on $450,000,- 
000 for one year would pay one year’s college ex- 
penses for a total number of young men and women 
equal to the total number of men in both the army 
and the navy, officers, privates and all. 

The total present-rate cost of militarism in the 
United States for two and a half years is $1,125,- 
000,000. Three and a half per cent, interest for one 
year on this amount would be $39,375,000. This 
interest would pay the college expenses of the total 
number of young men and women in all the 573 col- 
leges, universities and technological schools in the 
United States for the year ending June 30, 190$ 




A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


(that is, for 150,187 students), estimating the aver- 
age expense at $250 for the year, with a balance re- 
maining of almost $2,000,000 for extra expenses. 

Six and two-thirds per cent, interest for one year 
on the cost of a $15,000,000 battleship would pro- 
vide a four-year college education for the 1,000 
marines on board. 

The total value of all gifts and bequests received 
by all the higher institutions of learning in the 
United States in the year ending June 30, 1908, was 
$14,820,955; that is $179,000 less than the cost of 
one first-class British battleship. 

If there are forty-five State universities in the 
United States with a total of 6,750 teachers (150 
each) receiving an average salary of $2,000, their 
combined salaries are less than the cost of one dread- 
nought. 

Five per cent, interest on the cost of one dread- 
nought would pay the combined salaries of 1,500 
country school teachers at $500 per year; or the 
combined salaries of 750 country preachers at $1,- 
000 per year. (The average salary of a minister in 
Massachusetts is less than $800.) 

All the great governments are increasing their 
murdering equipment to be “ prepared for war ” ; 
that is, prepared to provoke and dare if the oppor- 
tunity presents itself. The annual expenses for war 
in England have doubled within the last ten years, 
and still the stupidity grows. England has 52 bat- 
tleships, 4 armored cruisers, 16 cruisers, 84 de- 
stroyers, 20 submarines, and to these are to be added 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


83 


at once 8 dreadnoughts costing from $12,000,000 
to $15,000,000 each and also an appropriate ” 
number of auxiliaries — armored and unarmored 
cruisers, torpedo boats, etc. — the additions to the 
present naval outfit to cost over $300,000,000. 
France has 21 battleships with an appropriate ” 
number of auxiliaries, and is building 8 more battle- 
ships with auxiliaries. In Germany militarism 
amounts to even greater madness. In 1872, im- 
mediately following a great war, the German empire 
spent $73,750,000 as direct expense of militarism; 
in 1898, not including the loss in labor power, the 
cost of the departments of murder was $337,500,- 
000. Increases in German militarism since 1898 
have been startling, and so furious is the spirit of 
militarism and so insanely is the government already 
burdened with war charges,” that in the year 
1907-8 bonds were sold to the extent of $25,000,000 
as part of a special effort to raise an extra fund with 
which to make additions to her murdering equip- 
ment. 

Admiral Marston met the young men at the gang- 
way. He apologized a little abruptly for the ab- 
sence of Mrs. Marston, who at the last moment was 
obliged to remain at home, owing to some unexpected 
calls. Pax was present, however, suitably chaper- 
oned by the wife of an ordnance officer, to whom, as 
well as several other ladies, relatives of the officers 
on board, Sidney and Ed Marston were introduced 
to those they had not met after the cruiser had left 
the dock and begun the trip down the river. 


84 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Some time during the middle of the afternoon, 
Sidney and Pax found themselves far enough distant 
from other members of the party on the cruiser’s 
bridge to talk without being overheard by others. 

Cousin Ed has taken a wonderful liking to you, 
Mr. Cushing. I see he has remembered the hat. 
Poor Ed ! His memory is a fright, generally. And 
did you ever hear such a talker.? Apparently he 
pays no attention to what you are saying more than 
half the time.” 

“ Except that pause after you speak. That de- 
notes the fact that he has been listening, don’t you 
think.? ” 

“ Yes. Oh, yes. I love that little habit of Ed’s. 
It’s so complimentary, isn’t it.?” 

Silence. 

« Isn’t it.? ” 

“ I was just trying to acquire it myself.” 

« Why.? 

“ Because you said you loved it.” 

“ I said I loved it in Cousin Ed.” 

“ But not in any one else? ” 

“ Perhaps. Do you think I ought to buy you a 
new hat? ” 

I can’t wear but one at a time.” 

“ And one in the family on the same day is 
enough? ” 

“ Perhaps. But I don’t feel that you owe me 
anything. I got the ribbons, I would be willing to 
lose ” 


« Yes?’? 


SIDNEY AND PAX 


86 


To lose several hats to get the ribbons.” 

Silence, 

^‘You have not told us — me — any more about 
Ihose strangely named young women you saved at 
the fire ” 

“ Hermosa and Athanasia? ” 

Yes. How — what do they look like? ” 
don’t know.” 

Don’t know?” 

saw their faces through fire and smoke, I 
have not seen them since.” 

Have they not — ^not come to thank you? Why, 
I ” 

No. I left home the next morning.” 

suppose Hermosa is a beautiful girl. Of 
course she is. All girls who do such things are 
beautiful. And how romantic! What will you say 
to her when you meet? ” 

Don’t, please. Miss Marston ! ” he appealed to 
her in a mood of fear. Again those bodies, falling, 
falling! Would they never cease falling? 

Pax Marston instantly changed the conversation. 

Oh, I am so glad to see from the papers that 
your father is not in any way to blame for the fac- 
tory trouble.” 

No, father is not to blame,” Sidney said slowly 
but with some feeling of trouble on his face. 

And wasn’t it splendid that he could prove to the 
public that no notice had ever been served by the 
fire marshal to put up fire escapes, and so ” 

“What!” 


86 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Why, haven’t you read it ? ” 

‘‘No. I promised the pater when I left home I 
would not try to follow the thing. I knew he could 
escape criminal charges. And I don’t mind saying, 
ever since then I haven’t been able to get away from 
the picture of those girls falling, falling. You will 
excuse me. That is why I spoke as I did just now. 
But what did you say about my father? ” 

“ He testified to the reporters that no notice had 
been served by the fire marshal. And the papers all 
say that relieves him from all responsibility for the 
deaths at the accident. I’m so glad for you.” 

But Sidney was staring out across the rail and his 
mind was in a whirl of contradictions as he flung 
Pax Marston’s astonishing statement into the future, 
and in bewilderment wondered what would come of 
it all, as the image of his father, stern, upright, and 
fiercely ambitious over the new warship, rose up in 
front of him. 

,His father had sworn that the marshal had never 
served the notice? Yet he himself had seen it served 
and his father had confessed it afterwards. This 
made his father a liar and a perjurer. And how 
about himself? Would he have to lie and perjure 
also? As he asked himself this question. Pax Mars- 
ton’s blue eyes were looking at him with more than 
ordinary interest. 


CHAPTER IV 


SILAS Fleming’s statement; brander gushing’s 
perjury; the men in the ship-yard; athan- 

ASIA AND HERMOSA ; THE WARNING ; THE FUNERALS ; 
ANDREW BRODIG, ANARCHIST ,* SIDNEY’s RETURN ; 
FATHER AND SON AGAIN. 

T)RANDER CUSHING’S pulse beat regularly 
again. 

You will subpoena my son to testify against 
me ? ” 

‘‘ I will unless you make confession yourself.” 

‘‘ My son was not present ” 

Wait, Mr. Cushing. ^ Not present ’ when? ” 

“ My son will testify as I have ; no notice was 
served. Will you leave now? ” 

“ No ! Mr. Cushing, the deputy marshal’s notice 
was served. You know well enough it was.” 

Leave the room ! ” 

“ I will not, until I have said all I came to say, 
Mr. Cushing. You have not yet guessed my real 
reason for this visit. You think of me as a political 
enemy simply. You have hated me for years. You 
hate me now as you hate no other human creature. 
Is it not so ? ” 

“ True.” 

“ But in the strange turnings of human events, 

87 


88 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


things have come to pass which neither of us would 
once have thought possible. And while I suppose it 
would be impossible to prove to you that I have any 
feelings other than political ambition, I am going 
to try to show you that I do have.” 

Brander Cushing was beside himself with rage and 
hate. 

“ Because I will not resort to violence and throw 
you out of the room, it does not follow that I have 
to listen to you. Talk on, Mr. Fleming.” 

He deliberately turned his chair around in front 
of his desk and pulled some papers out and begun 
making notes on them. 

Silas Fleming hitched his big form up a little 
closer. 

“ Cushing, you shall listen to me. Do you know 
who the deputy fire marshal is ? The young man who 
served the notice on you here in this room Septem- 
ber eighteen. He is my prospective son-in-law. And 
all his life he has been the soul of honor. His word is 
his life, and yet you know that if he goes into court 
and swears that he served the papers on you, and you 
swear that he didn’t, every one will believe you, and 
count him guilty of perjury, trying to make good by 
a desperate falsehood for a mismanaged fire depart- 
ment. Why? Brander Cushing, head of the great 
shipyard, trusted by the government, man of strict- 
est integrity, man of wealth and position; and the 
deputy, an obscure young man, just out of the ranks 
of labor, untried and unknown. But see here, Cush- 
ing. Here is where I come in. I suppose as a man 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 89 


you love your son. As a man I also love my daugh- 
ter. Her happiness is dearer to me than even my 
political ambition or my hostility to you. Since 
your public statement denying the service of the 
papers. Nelson is under a cloud. I know that he has 
told the truth. Others are not so sure. Poison has 
entered the mind of others in my home. There are 
things that are dearer to me, yes, even to me, 
strange as it may seem to you, than personal power. 
And the sole reason I have come here to-day is to 
see if in any way you would retract, make a bold 
statement of the facts about the notice, and leave 
it to me as the prosecuting attorney to take care of 
the case so that you should not suffer when the trial 
came off.” 

Cushing wheeled about abruptly. 

And you have the insolence to come here with a 
proposition that I perjure myself for your benefit? 
And incur the risk of a conviction and a jail sen- 
tence, trusting your tender mercies once I pleaded 
guilty? Once more I tell you no notice was served 
on me, and order you to get out of my sight.” 

Silas Fleming rose. His big fat face was mottled. 
His fat forefinger again pointed at the safe behind 
Cushing. 

‘‘Brander Cushing, you lie, and you know it. I 
will convict you of perjury and of criminal negli- 
gence and I will do it through the testimony of your 
son.” 

Leave the room ! And do your worst.” 

The county attorney went out, and to preclude 


90 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


the possibility of his return, Brander Cushing got 
up and locked the door. 

Then he went back to his desk and confronted 
himself. 

There are a few real moments in life when a man 
fairly and squarely sees himself as he is. This was 
one of those times for Brander Cushing. Once hav- 
ing determined on his course he was ready to drive 
over all opposition and trample on everything and 
every one that was likely to get in the way. The 
visit of Silas Fleming had in reality stiffened his 
stubborn will and in other ways reminded him anew 
of the dangerous position he occupied. There was 
no way of safety for him except positive and em- 
phatic denial of the service of the papers. 

The constant reference to them in his own mind 
started him at last to action. 

He rose and went to the small office safe, opened 
it, pulled out the drawer with a grim look as he re- 
called how Fleming’s fat finger had pointed directly 
at it, and then took out the papers, and after a mo- 
ment of hesitation put them into his inside coat 
pocket. There was no place in the room where he 
could destroy them, and he purposed to do that when 
he reached home. 

It is strange what weaknesses are to be found in 
exceptionally bold and aggressive men. Napoleon 
was afraid of looking into a broken mirror, and 
Frederick the Great thought his greatest accom- 
plishment was playing the flute (which he did 
abominably). 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 91 


Brander Cushing actually felt easier in his mind 
when the envelope containing the fire marshal’s notice 
was out of the safe and in his pocket, and for a few 
minutes he actually had a feeling as if there was noth- 
ing more to do. 

,The minutes passed and he had turned to his desk 
as if to take up his regular work, when the one great 
question of all suddenly confronted him. 

How about Sidney? 

What would he do? 

Everything depended on him, of course. Would 
he, in this crisis, go his own way and tell the truth? 

Cushing had never known him to tell a falsehood. 
He had himself trained him to habits of sternest 
probity. The name of Brander Cushing for over 
forty years had been absolute in the market place. 
He was, it is true, allied with the greatest commercial 
pirate gang in all the world’s history ; it had robbed 
the people of millions, and at the same time Cushing 
had himself a personal reputation for truth and 
honesty that was unimpeachable. So intricate and 
puzzling are the possibilities of this complex social 
and business world. 

But what would Sidney do? That was one ques- 
tion Cushing could not answer* For twenty years 
Sidney had obeyed his father impliclty. There had 
never been an instance that his father could recall 
when he had questioned his father’s authority or his 
good judgment. 

But this was another matter. For the first time 
in his life, the son would be asked to stand by a 


92 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


falsehood, deliberately uttered; to abet a course of 
action that meant dishonor and disgrace for inno- 
cent people. Who could tell whether Sidney’s high 
sense of honor might lead him to rebel and even go 
so far as to testify against his own father? 

What was the alternative? State prison! Bran- 
der Cushing wiped big beads of sweat from his face. 
That would determine Sidney doubtless. Such an 
alternative would decide the matter. In any case 
he had sent Fleming away with all of a stubborn, 
stolid man’s relentless purpose to bring Cushing and 
his son into court and if possible secure conviction 
and a full sentence. 

He had hoped his denial of the service of the papers 
would preclude an indictment by the grand jury. 
The longer he thought it over the more he grew con- 
vinced that Fleming would secure some kind of in- 
dictment, probably based on criminal negligence. A 
number of horrors, similar to this one, had occurred 
in different cities within a few months, and the pub- 
lic was beginning to grow clamorous for convictions. 
The Federation of Labor had held great meetings in 
all the great cities voicing deep wrath over the 
cheapness put on human life by certain business 
firms. Brander Cushing felt it, like a thing which 
needed no argument. In spite of his position, his 
wealth, his influence, he could not disguise the fact 
that he stood in real peril. For the first time in his 
life he was afraid. And to save hismelf he had flung 
up the shield of a direct lie. The great and con- 
suming question with him now was, would his own 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 93 


son support him in that defense? And the thing that 
grew to torture him as the minutes went on was the 
uncertainty in his own mind as to how Sidney would 
act. The more he dwelt upon it, the more uncertain 
it all seemed. 

It was now four o’clock in the afternoon. He was 
so restless in his mind that he unlocked the office door 
and went up to the great draughting room. The 
minute his eyes fell on the white chalk lines on the 
great floor, he felt a sense of relief. What! He, 
Brander Cushing, the great ship-yard man, in whose 
brain were born these new and valuable designs for 
warships, the man trusted and honored by the great 
United States Government, the close personal friend 
of the Secretary of War, who was perhaps in the 
way to become even greater, he in danger of going 
to prison as a common law-breaker? 

The very thought was absurd. He saw an incor- 
rect drawing on the other side of the room, and 
stepped around to the engineer to correct it. In a 
moment everything else was gone from his mind. This 
vessel would be the pride of the nation. It would be 
the envy of all the other powers. His name would 
be on the lips of kings and emperors. The high and 
mighty who sat in seats exalted would mention him 
in their war councils. The lines on the floor took on 
new and powerful meaning. They spelled awards of 
honor, all the comforts and luxuries of great wealth, 
high acclaim and an honored ending of a dignified 
and distinguished career. 

As he passed by a window he was attracted by the 


94 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


stir of all the human and mechanical movement. Yet 
somehow, it flashed over him that something was dif- 
ferent. What was it? He recalled his experience of 
the morning, and determined to test it again. 

After making a few changes in another part of 
the floor design, he went out into the yard. 

The keel-laying was proceeding under the super- 
vision of the yard superintendent McLeish, who 
generally had four hundred men under him. The 
number this afternoon seemed so small that Cushing 
spoke to McLeish about it. 

Seventy-five men had children in the accident. 
Might as well say, Mr. Cushing, there’s an ugly feel- 
ing among the men.” 

Do they blame me? ” 

The superintendent was astonished at the ques- 
tion. 

‘‘ You can judge for yourself, sir. There’s an 
ugly feeling in the yard.” 

Brander Cushing at once went up to one of the 
men whom he knew as one of the oldest and most 
trusted yardworkers in the employ of the company. 

Burns,” he said, “ what ails the men today? Are 
they blaming me for the factory fire? ” 

Burns looked exceedingly uncomfortable. At first 
he seemed inclined not to speak. Theii he said 
stiffly : 

“Since you ask me, Mr. Cushing, I don’t mind 
saying they do. There’s bad feeling In the yard.” 

Don’t the men know I am not responsible for the 
loss of life? ” 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 95 


“ I can’t say, sir. But I know feeling is strong 
against you.” 

Barns moved away as if he did not care to talk 
any more and Cushing went down into the yard. 

He spoke to different men as he moved along, but 
received in reply only a surly nod or a hard look. It 
was a new experience for him. One of the comfort- 
able daily events for him was the relation he sus- 
tained to his men. There were nearly four thousand 
in all. Out of that number he knew a very large 
number by name. It was one of the pleasurable 
things in his day’s programme to walk through the 
yard or the shops exchanging greetings with the 
men. It was: 

“ Fine piece of work, Lloyd,” This will beat the 
old type, Andrew,” “ Great day for work, eh, Wal- 
lace?” 

And the men always responded heartily. They 
respected him, too. They made him feel as if, in 
some intangible way, without too much fuss about it, 
he and they understood the exact relation of labor 
and capital, of brains and muscle. But all this was 
different. It was new business for him to be snubbed 
by his own workmen in his own ship-yard. It cut 
him deeply, and the whole thing intensified his pur- 
pose that no matter what the cost to his conscience 
or his family pride he must stand by his falsehood 
and regain popular confidence. 

He went back to the office again, and calling in a 
stenographer, dictated a few letters. It was an un- 
usual time of the day, but he worked in unusual ways 


96 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


and never wrote his letters until he felt exactly in the 
mood. After dictating a dozen letters, he sent the 
clerk out and wrote a brief line to Sidney. After 
finishing, he read it, tore it up and sent a telegram 
instead. 

Everything going all right here. See Anderson 
about details of water valves. Draw on me for any- 
thing you need. If Secretary invites you, tell him 
his suggestion about interior lighting is being care- 
fully considered. See Marston. Take your time at 
patent office.” 

He sent this out and busied himself until nearly 
five o’clock with the details of a new form of detach- 
able torpedo hood. He had finally risen to leave 
the works, as his custom had been for years to take 
a long walk before dinner, when a clerk announced 
a visitor. 

‘^A lady to see you, sir.” 

Brander Cushing was by nature and training the 
soul of courtesy and fine manners. 

When he looked up and saw his visitor he at once 
rose and with added politeness offered a chair. 

As long as he lives he will not forget that after- 
noon nor his experience. 

Outside, the yard clanged and roared and hummed 
with its many-voiced energy. Inside the offices, type- 
writers clicked and clerks were busy here and there 
at desks and tables and draughting boards. 
Through the open door leading into his inner office, 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 97 


Cushing could see a splendid model of the great 
warship, the Republic, 

But instantly all his attention was directed to- 
wards his visitor. 

She was, perhaps, twenty years old. Her face 
was very pale, and unusual in its cold regularity of 
feature. Cushing was startled by it. But his first 
impression speedily yielded to his second when the 
girl began to speak. He had read of wonderful 
voices in women of fiction, but had never believed 
in them. Now he was simply bewildered to hear 
that rarest of all rare gifts, a natural musical voice 
which the owner did not understand but used nat- 
urally. 

One other item he had also at once noted. She 
was a cripple. 

Mr. Cushing, I am Athanasia Ward. One of 
the girls your son saved in the ” 

She put her hands up to her face. There were 
great burns visible on the backs of them.? ” 

« Well? ’’ 

He — I — No one can thank any one for sucK a 
thing as that. But — there seemed to be nn other 
way.” 

My son is not Here. He is oul of the city. I 
do not know when he will return. You do not need 
to thank him.” 

But I wish to do so.” 

I do not know when he will be back.” 

‘‘ I was not able yesterday to say anything. Oh, 
it was terrible. Mr. Cushing, aren’t you thankful 


98 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


you are not responsible for any of those deaths? 
It must be terrible to feel that.” 

Pause. 

‘‘You have been working in the factory — how 
long? ” 

“ Since father died, four years ago. My mother 
is living and I have a brother in the warehouse.” 

“ There was another girl who escaped at the same 
time with you and who helped you, my son told me. 
Hermosa ” 

“ Hermosa Howard. Oh, she is a brave girl ! I 
should be with those others if Hermosa — You see, 
Mr. Cushing, right in the midst of our Work, with- 
out a second’s warning, there was an awful report, 
and the whole room seemed to be in a blaze. You 
see there’s so much lint flying all the time. There 
were fifty girls on our floor. They all stood up 
and then ran around to the different windows scream- 
ing and crying. I saw Hermosa pull several back 
who were just going to jump. She and Helvetia 
Slova ran to the door and tried to open it, but it was 
locked. They beat on it with their fists until the 
flesh came off. Then we all crowded over to the 
alley windows. It was there we first saw your son. 
Oh, he is brave and strong! I shall never forget 
how he stood there on the window sill, his foot braced 
against the edge of the board. I would have been 
trampled to death if Hermosa had not lifted and 
pushed and shoved me out onto the board. Oh, how; 
I feared! I shall always dream of it. I am not 
brave like Hermosa or your son. I am a coward^ 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 99 


Perhaps it comes from being lame. I don’t know 
how I ever crossed. I was saying all the time, ‘ O 
God, if you are good, won’t you save Hermosa? ’ 
And he did — but oh, it’s terrible in our court to- 
day. There will be twenty-five funerals from our 
tenement to-morrow. A good many of the people 
are going crazy over it.” 

“ Good Heavens, girl, why do you come here to 
tell me about it.?” Brander Cushing’s nerves were 
racked and his exclamation was justifiable in the 
girl’s mind. 

“ Oh, I beg pardon, Mr. Cushing. I did not 
mean — No, I came for another purpose. But I 
cannot escape the sight of it. I came — I came — to 
yrsirn you ! ” 

Warn me ! ” exclaimed Cushing as he turned to 
face his strange visitor more directly. 

‘^Yes, sir. The men in the yard. Have you 
noticed anything unusual.? ” 

WeU.? ” 

They are ugly. They think yoii are to blame 
for all this. And I heard — I happened to hear some 
(words that made me fear the men would do you 
harm, or do damage to the yard or the buildings or 
something.” 

« Well.? ” 

And I thought you ought to know.” 

^‘What was said.? Who were they?” 
don’t know.” 

^^You don’t know wHo the men are?” 

^«No, sir, and I don’t know exactly what they 


100 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


said. But what I heard made me afraid for you. 
I felt I must come over and see you. How can I 
ever repay your son for my life.^ ” 

Athanasia Ward spoke with a simplicity that 
made Brander Cushing forget his manners. He 
stared at her, and immediately apologized to him- 
self. But in that stare he had caught a glimpse of 
the painful fact that Athanasia was what some people 
call weak-minded. And to his astonishment over 
what he had already experienced he added a dull 
sense of something like pity for her mental condition. 

So you thought you ought to warn me, eh.^ ” 

“ Yes, sir. It’s nothing sure, but after the funer- 
als to-morrow, I shouldn’t wonder if ” She hesi- 

tated. 

« If what.? ” 

“If they might try to do some harm. You see, 
it’s awful. One of the men who works in the casting 
room lost three girls, and another lost ” 

“ Stop ! I can’t bear to hear it.” 

I can’t bear to tell it, either. But oh, do you 
think, sir, I will ever get over seeing those bodies 
falling, falling.? ” 

The same question Sidney Cushing was asking at 
that very moment as he was speeding towards Wash- 
ington. Would either he or Athanasia ever have 
untroubled dreams again.? 

“ It was a terrible thing for you, poor girl. But 
your life was spared. You hands were badly 
burned” 

“ Oh, no, sir. Not badly. There was Cora Vas- 
sil, her hands were ” 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 101 


No, I don’t want to hear it. Was Hermosa 
badly hurt ? ” 

Hermosa? Hermosa? Why, here she is now ! ” 

Hermosa Howard came into the office. Brander 
Cushing looked at those two girls as a man might 
look at persons raised from the dead. Both bore 
the marks of tragedy on their faces. But it was 
more than a tragedy dating from the horror of the 
day before. This was the life tragedy of a struggle 
from the time of birth to maintain the decencies of 
life. . Even Brander Cushing, inexperienced as he 
was in the deep things of humanity, felt borne in 
upon him as he looked at these two creatures, that 
perhaps there was something more Important than 
building warships. 

Did you come to warn me, too? ” he said, speak- 
ing to Hermosa slowly. 

Yes, sir,” she said simply. ‘‘ That, and to thank 
your son. My father, you see, Mr. Cushing, is 
blind and a paralytic.” 

I know. I remember him. He was in the 
yard ? 

Eight years ago. His mind is clear and he 
doesn’t suffer. I hoped to see your son, Mr. Cush- 
ing. They tell me he is not here.” 

^‘In Washington.” 

^^Athanasia and I never can say our thanks. 
People do not thank others for saving them, do 
they? ” 

I don’t know. I never was saved.” Cushing 
was staring at Hermosa as he had stared at Atha- 


nasia. 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


loa 


‘‘ I told Mr. Cushing what we heard, you and L 
There is danger, isn’t there? ” said Athanasia. 

“ Great danger, I think,” said Hermosa Howard 
gravely. 

What did you hear? ” from Brander Cushing, 
shortly. 

“ The people are broken-hearted. Can you blame 
them, sir? One hundred and forty-seven girls. Oh! 
And they blame you for it, in part. They say you 
did not provide — I know, I know. You have ex- 
plained all that. We believe it. We are not blam- 
ing you. You have always been kind and just to 
the men. But they feel, they feel deep. We are 
afraid for you.” 

‘^Afraid for me?” said Brander Cushing in his 
heart, listening to this girl of the people, this hard 
toiler in the loom of his human ambition. And 
he ? 

These threats you Heard are very vague. WHy 
should I pay any heed to them? What qari the 
men do? ” 

“ They threatened to wreck IHe draughting-room. 
To burn the works. Athanasia heard the same. 
They may even offer violence to you.” 

I’m not afraid of it.” Cushing rose, weni over 
to the window which opened on the yard, and looked 
out. The whistles were blowing and the men had 
already begun to deposit their blocks and go out 
at the great gate. Cushing watched the increasing 
stream thoughtfully. Then he turned again, facing 
the two young women. 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 103 


“ I don’t see that your warning is of any special 
value to me. What can I do? I feel very sorry 
for — for the victims of the fire. The company will 
be ready, it is ready, to give substantial aid to those 
who are in its employ. But your warning is too 
vague. It does not mean anything.” 

Hermosa stepped nearer. Since she came in, 
she had remained standing. 

“ Mr. Cushing, I believe you and your son are 
both in real danger. Greater than even I imagine. 
I dread to think that crime may be added to 
calamity.” 

Crime to calamity? ” 

“Yes, sir. The men’s minds are maddened by all 
this. They are talking about you, and, pardon, 
cursing you over their dead.” 

Brander Cushing was silent. Had they not a 
right to curse him over their dead, these rough- 
handed, hard-toiling men — these men whose main 
sweetness of life lay in their love of child and wife? 
And was it not true? Had he not committed crime 
in neglecting their safety? 

“ I don’t see what I can do,” he said out loud. 

“ We don’t know, either,” said Athanasia ; “ but 
we had to come and tell, didn’t we, Hermosa? ” 

“ Yes. I wish — I wish there was some way to 
guard ” 

“ We can call in extra police. But I don’t think 
it necessary. You are good girls to come and warn 
me.” 

“And will you tell your son, Mr. Cushing, how 


104 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


we came to see and thank him? ” Athanasia spoke, 
lifting her eyes to Hermosa, as she had repeatedly 
done during this interview, as if to seek her approval. 

« Yes, I’ll tell him.” 

Will he be back soon? ” timidly from Athanasia. 

I don’t know.” 

Come, Athanasia, shall we go? ” said Hermosa, 
gently. 

There was a faint red glow on Athanasia’s cheek, 
burning through the marks of the smoke and flame 
of the tragedy. 

“ Yes. Let us go. I wish there was something 
more we could do.” 

‘‘ I don’t see what more you can do, girls. I ap- 
preciate what you have done. But I’m sure there’s 
no danger.” Brander Cushing opened the door, with 
his best manner bowed them out, and then went back 
to his desk. 

He stood there only a moment. Then he sent a 
message for the head superintendent of the draught- 
ing-rooms. 

When he came, he told him briefly what the two 
girls had said. 

What do you think, Merrill ? Is it worth while 
to pay any attention to this ? ” 

Merrill spoke slowly. 

The men have acted ugly all day. Only twenty- 
three hundred reported. I doubt if half that number 
turn in to-morrow.” 

‘‘No one will turn in to-morrow. Haven’t you 
got the order to shut down? ” 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 105 

“ I have been out at the testing-dock. When your 
message came I was out.” 

McLeish gave the order in your absence. The 
gates will not be open all day. I think perhaps you 
had better see to an extra shift of night watchmen 
to-night and ” 

“And to-morrow night 

“ And to-morrow night.” 

“ Will you guard your own house, Mr. Cushing.? ” 

“ No.” 

“ I would if I were you.” 

“ Why.? ” 

“ I think it would be safer.” 

Pause. 

“ I don’t think there is any danger.” 

“ If I were you, Mr. Cushing, I would take some 
precautions. The men are sore over the neglect on 
the company’s part to put up the escapes.” 

Cushing turned on the superintendent. 

“ How are we to blame when we had no notice 
from the department to put them up .? ” 

“ We are not, legally, of course.” 

“ Nor any other way. I had already made plans 
for them. The escapes would have been up this 
week. Have I never shown you the plans.? John- 
son was delayed on the dock valves or he would 
have had them ready. How could we foresee a de- 
fective gas main.? ” 

“ We couldn’t, of course.” 

Cushing turned to the safe and with almost childish 
eagerness took out the plans to which he had called 


106 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Sidney’s attention and showed them to Merrill. 

Merrill looked them over carefully and his man- 
ner seemed reassured. He handed the papers back 
respectfully. 

‘‘ It’s a pity, sir, that this could not have been 
done in time.” 

‘‘ Yes. Well, no one deplores the terrible results 
more than I do, Merrill. It will be a sad day to- 
morrow for many people.” 

“ It sure will.” 

Pause. 

“Is there anything more, Mr. Cushing.? ” 

“ I think not. You might give Fogerty a good 
strong word about the yard as you go out.” 

“ All right. Good-night. I hope you will 
not ” 

“ No danger, Merrill. Dismiss the idea.” 

“ Sidney is out of town? ” 

“ I sent him to Washington to get things straight 
on the turret valves.” 

“ Ah, yes, I see. Well, good-night.” 

“ Good-night, Merrill.’ 

When Cushing left the building it was nearly dark, 
and he was, or thought he was, the last man out of 
the offices. He stopped to speak to Fogerty as he 
went out at the big gate. The head night watch- 
man came on duty with the blowing of the five o’clock 
whistle. 

“ Everything all right, Fogerty ? ” 

“Yes, sir, I think so. Mr. Merrill gave me or- 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 107 

ders as he went out to be on guard with the extra 
night shift.” 

I don’t think there’s any danger. But — go over 
the draughting-room yourself, before dark.” 

“ I will, sir.” 

Brander Cushing went home to his solitary meal. 
He missed Sidney, and almost yielded to a sudden 
desire to wire him to come home. 

But after his meal was over and he had gone into 
the library, he settled himself to a favorite book of 
fiction, and read steadily until eleven o’clock. 

Then he took out the fire marshal’s notice, and 
slowly laid it on the table. 

He picked it up again and unfolded and read it. 
He carefully noted the date, September 18, in a note 
book and put the book back in his pocket. 

Then he rose and, taking the paper, went over 
to the fireplace. He lighted one of the fancy wax 
candles on the mantel and for a moment stood still, 
as if going over every possible point he had elabo- 
rated that morning. Then he slowly moved a cor- 
ner of the paper over to the candle, and when it 
was lighted flung it down over the ashes of an old fire. 
As fast as it burned he beat up the charred pieces 
with the tongs and stirred them up until they flew 
in black patches up the chimney-place. 

When he had gone back to the library table his 
face was the face of a man who fights at any odds 
against personal dishonor. But he had not been 
seated five minutes before a new fear seized him so 
strongly that he nervously went out into the dining- 


,108 A BUILDER OF SHIPS 

room, and from there into the hall. It seemed to 
him he could hear strange noises in different parts 
of the old house. 

He listened. It was half-past eleven. The ser- 
vants slept at the rear up three stories. He opened 
all the doors between the rooms. The noises, if there 
had been any, suddenly ceased. 

“ Angus ! ” he called. 

There was no answer. 

He called once more and, getting no reply, shut 
the doors and went back to the library, smiling at 
his unusual nervousness. 

But when he was seated, he put his hand up and 
felt the sweat on his face. 

He swore; and realized as he did so that an oath 
was as strange to his lips as a drink of whisky would 
have been. But at the same instant he heard Atha- 
nasia Ward saying: 

“ She and Helvetia Slova ran to the door and 
tried to open it, but it was locked. They beat on 
it with their fists until the flesh came off.” 

That locked door ! 

Suppose that fact came out at the trial. What 
would save him from indictment for manslaughter? 
Even if he proved that he was not legally guilty of 
neglect to provide means of safety, how about con- 
ditions in the firetrap of a factory owned and con- 
trolled by the company, that is, by himself? Would 
a man like Silas Fleming be apt to overlook a point 
like that? And what jury on earth, confronted by 
such a fact as that witnessed by these two girls 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 109 


who were alive to testify, would dare do less than 
convict? 

He stared across his richly furnished library and 
wished for the break of day. Again he was half 
minded to send for Sidney. But in the end he grew 
calmer. Slowly he readjusted himself. No one 
could charge him with locking the doors. That was 
the act of a hired hand. Not by his orders. Flem- 
ing could never indict him for that. Sidney would 
stand by him. He remembered what the boy had 
said that morning : Father, you know I will stand 
by.” He remembered the gesture of affectionate ap- 
peal that went with the words. He was sure of Sid- 
ney. And that was the main thing now. 

Brander Cushing went up stairs and went to bed. 
No more noises were heard by him that nigiit. His 
nerves became steady. He lay down and in. five 
minutes his body was sleeping dreamlessly. 

The day of the funerals of the victims of the naval 
factory horror was a day that will never be forgot- 
ten by those who witnessed its dark pageantry. 

The entire city seemed to lie under the pall of 
death. Many of the victims had been recovered 
from the ruins as unidentified lumps of humanity. 
The individual funerals were fewer than the general 
blending of one large interment. Over one hundred 
bodies of these young girls were buried in terriblei 
rows together in a common grave. The whole city 
stood still at the place. Thousands walked past 
the ghastly trench and dropped fiowers so thick over 
the coffins that at the end of half an hour the boxes 


110 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


were mounds of color ; while from fathers, 
mothers and relatives standing there, crowded by 
masses along that ditch of death, there arose a cry 
that was like nothing but the united groan that rises 
from a great battlefield after the crash of conflict 
is over. 

Brander Cushing had walked out to the place of 
burial, drawn by an attraction he could not resist 
nor analyze. It was the last thing in the world he 
had expected to do when he awoke that morning. 
But he never accounted for the impulse that dragged 
him out to the spot. He walked by an unfrequented 
road, and during the impressive services conducted 
at the trench he stood on the edge of the crowd, but 
on a rising piece of ground from which every detail 
of that day’s tragedy was marked as distinct on his 
brain as if drawn there with a steel etching-point. 
He spoke to no one. And just before the people began 
to leave the place, he strode out by the way he had! 
come and walked back into the city as if pursued by 
living torments. 

Urged by another impulse, once in the city he 
went direct to the ship-yard. 

Fogerty let him in at the big gate. 

Once inside, Cushing was himself, alert, clear- 
eyed, keen and resourceful. 

Anything to report, Fogerty?” 

^‘No, sir; all quiet. Mr. Merrill came over this 
morning. He made the rounds with me.” 

All right, Fogerty. If he or McLelsh should 
happen to come in, tell them I’ll be in the loft.” 

He went to his ofiSce first and checked off a list 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 111 


which had been prepared the day before of em- 
ployees whom he intended to help, among the families 
of those who had suffered. He went over this list 
with great care and some mental relief. After he 
had made careful computation of the amount he had 
decided to use for this purpose, he filed the list away, 
and went up to the draughting-loft. 

This great room at the top of the office building 
was in many respects the heart of Brander Cush- 
ing’s whole life during the process of evolving a new 
warship. 

On the floor were chalked out the lines of the 
vessel drawn to exact scale. This draughtsman- 
ship called for great skill and perfect knowledge of 
every detail of construction. No man in America, 
or for that matter in all the world, had more techni- 
cal equipment for construction than Brander Cush- 
ing. Many of the draughting-plans in this big loft 
were entirely original with him and had been eagerly 
sought for by shipbuilders in Europe and South 
America, and Brander Cushing’s name was regarded 
as synonymous with genius as an expert in the larg- 
est establishments in Belfast and Kiel, at Brest 
and Clyde. 

He was alone in the place, and as always when 
confronting the magic white curves and cross lines of 
section divisions of the yet unbuilt war-dragon, he 
soon lost himself completely in the vision he was able 
to see of the finished product, the stately, powerful, 
fully equipped vessel that those white skeleton chalk 
marks represented. 

Already, with the closing of the door, had van- 


112 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


ished from his mind the dirge and sob and heartbreak 
of that wailing-place out there where the unidentified 
dead lay so thick together. Already his mind had 
ceased to toss back and forth all the possibilities of 
Silas Fleming’s action. The only thing in all the 
world for Brander Cushing was his ambition, his 
life-work crowned by this new creation of Death, 
biggest and most terrible of all civilized nations’ 
armament to kill or defy killing. 

He took a piece of draughtsman’s chalk and got 
down on the floor to make a correction. He had 
measured off a line and put his knee on the marker 
when he heard a step behind him. 

He had just turned his head, thinking the step 
was that of Merrill or McLeish, when with a single 
bound a man was upon him, flinging himself down 
on his back like some wild tropical beast. 

He was taken completely by surprise. The im- 
pact of his assailant’s body bore his own with a 
tremendous plunge flat upon the floor. 

But instinctively his old trained athletic habits 
sprung into action. It was not for nothing he had 
prided himself all these years on his unusual vigor, 
and, above all, on a rapidity of muscular movement 
that most men of even thirty do not possess. 

He flung his right arm up with a vicious and 
deliberate thrust into the man’s face, which through 
the violence of his onslaught was down over his 
shoulder. He felt his elbow crash and the man’s 
hold loosened, as he snarled an oath of pain. With 
a lightning swiftness, Brander Cushing twisted over, 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 113 


caught the man in a grip at the back of his neck, 
and twisted his whole body over. The two grap- 
pled as they lay, rolling over and over the chalk lines. 
Even then Brander Cushing was enraged to think that 
some of his most careful and painstaking work was 
perhaps being rubbed out. The very absurdity of it 
in one sense added to the fury of his struggle and 
shortened it. He managed to get his hands around 
the other’s throat. He felt the murderer’s red- 
blooded passion as he gripped him. And then the 
man suddenly, as if his strength were taken away, 
relaxed so quickly that his head swung over. Cush- 
ing fell with all his own weight upon him and bore 
him down. The man’s head struck one of the meas- 
uring weights with a thud. And Cushing, breathless 
and torn, leaned over him as he lay there uncon- 
scious. 

The man still lay there after Cushing had risen 
to his feet. Seeing that he was stunned, Cushing 
coolly went over to one of the washstands at the end 
of the loft, washed his hands and face, took off his 
coat, brushed it and his clothes, put his coat on, and 
then slowly walked back to where the man was still 
lying. 

'He looked frail and ligh? attack a man like 
Cushing, and Cushing’s first feeling was almost one 
of chagrin that such an insignficant creature could 
have given him such a struggle. 

The man opened his eyes and sat up. • 

Cushing pulled a stool out from one of the clerks’ 
copying-tables, sat down on it and confronted him. 


114 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


The man put his hand up to his head and looked 
with a dazed and questioning stare at the con- 
tractor. 

« Well?” 

How did I come here? ” 

Just what I was going to ask you?. ” 

« Ask me? ” 

^^Yes, You ought to know better than I do.” 

What have I been doing? ” 

“Rubbing out my lines, for one thing,” snarled 
Cushing suddenly. “ Get up, you hound. Get up 
off my lines, or I’ll break your neck!” 

The man looked dazed and then sullen. Cushing 
leaned over and took him by the shoulder and jerked 
him up on his feet. The man’s eyes gleamed vi- 
ciously, but his physical vitality seemed exhausted. 
He looked at Cushing furtively. 

“ What were you doing up here ? ” 

“ Nothing.” 

“ You lie.” 

“ I wasn’t doing anything.” 

“ What’s your name ? ” 

“Andrew Brodig.” 

“ Why did you attack me ? ” 

The man was silent. 

“ Talk up, man. I’m going to have the police 
here in a few minutes.” 

“You’re an enemy,” said the man sullenly. 

“ An enemy? ” 

“ Of mankind.’^ 

“How’s that?’^ 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 115 


‘‘ You’re a capitalist.” 

And you ” 

‘‘ I am one of the people.” 

The man folded his arms and assumed a theatrical 
pose. 

One of the people ! Heaven have mercy on the 
people then.” 

The man was silent, eyeing Cushing with that 
furtive glance that suggested both fear and cruelty. 
At the same time, Cushing felt somehow that if the 
man had been an animal his ears would be pricked 
up as if to listen to something. He had that ex- 
pectant alertness. 

‘^How long have you been in the loft.? ” 

Since yesterday.” 

«Why.?” 

“A man must sleep somewhere. Would you have 
me sleep in the street.? ” 

Why did you attack me .? Have I ever harmed 
you?” 

You are an enemy.” 

Bah!” 

Of the people,” said the man. 

Cushing looked at him more closely. 

He was an object to excite compassion. Starva- 
tion looked out of his haunted eyes. Ignorance, 
bigotry, poverty, all the vices and misfortunes strug- 
gled for a foothold in his miserable body. 

He’s not worth arresting. The creature’s Half- 
witted. One of those half-sane anarchists that latel}^ 
jam the water front. What charge have I against 


116 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


him? I don’t want to go to the bother with all that 
I have on hand to ” 

Aloud he said: 

“ Andrew Brodig, if that is jour real name, I am 
tired of jour companj. You interrupted mj work 
when jou butted in here, and I have some of it to do 
over again. There is the door. I will see jou 
through it.” 

The man looked dazed. 

‘‘You will not hand me over to the police!^ ” 

“ What for? ” 

“ For attacking jou.” 

“Did JOU attack me? I had forgotten it.” 
Brander Cushing spoke with scorn. 

He started to whistle down the tube for Fogertj 
or one of his deputies to come up, but paused. 

“ Wait a minute. Are jou emplojed bj anj one 
in the jard to come in here? ” 

The man looked absolutelj blank. 

“ Because if jou are jou can go to them and give 
them Brander Cushing’s compliments. Tell them 
to send on all their assassins at once, so I can get the 
job off mj hands. I’m too busj to fool with one 
at a time.” 

The man stared dullj. Cushing blew down the 
tube and asked Fogertj to come up. 

The man looked as if he were about to faint. 
Cushing pushed a stool under him and he sank down 
on it in a huddled heap. 

“You look bad, man. How long since jou had 
a bite? ” 

“ I don’t know.” 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING 117 


Here, take this.” Cushing pulled out a silver 
dollar. The man took it, and looked at it stupidly. 

The watchman came in, 

‘‘ Here is a man you can escort to the gates, 
Fogerty, Put him on the outside where he belongs, 
and see that he stays there,” 

Fogerty grabbed him not too gently by the arm 
and moved with him towards the door, Cushing sat 
looking quizzically. 

Suddenly past his head the silver dollar came fly- 
ing. It just missed him and went spinning down 
over the smooth floor. Cushing eyed it scornfully. 

That’s what comes of yielding to sentiment.” 
He called after the watchman, “ Ask an officer to 
keep this fellow away from the yard.” He had a 
feeling of resentment that even when he had yielded 
to a finer feeling it met with no response. He felt 
the contempt one cannot escape entertaining towards 
ingratitude. 

He purposely stayed at the works until after dark, 
telephoning Angus not to serve dinner until eight 
o’clock. With a perfect absence of nervousness he 
went over the obliterated and confused chalk lines, 
until they were again as perfect as when he came 
up to the room. And then he walked down to the 
gate, giving the watchman as he went out rather 
careful instructions about keeping a good lookout. 

He had been seated at his dinner several minutes 
when a servant brought a piece of paper which he 
said had been put under the door after some un- 
known and unseen person had rung the bell. 


118 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Cushing opened it and read in printed letters : 

‘‘Mr. Cushing: Don’t go near the draughting- 
room to-night.” 

“Really? This is getting too melodramatic.” 
But he thought it worth while to caU up Fogerty a 
little later and ask him to make a careful round of 
the entire yard and keep an eye out for anything 
unusual. 

The night was very clear and still. A sharp touch 
of frost. He looked out of his library windows on 
the street. By the light of the street lamps every- 
thing looked as usual. He sat down to read, avoid- 
ing the evening paper which Angus always put in 
the same place on the reading table. He did not 
wish to go over all the details he knew would be there 
describing the horrors of the day. Not even his 
nerves were quite equal to it. 

He was reading Gaboriau’s Madame Lerouge and 
comparing it as he went on with Conan Doyle’s later 
work, when the front door opened. He looked at the 
clock on the table. It said fifteen minutes after 
eleven. 

A step he knew came along the hallway, through 
the sitting-room, and into the doorway of the library. 
He stood up. It was Sidney. 

“What! You have come back.? Why? WHat 
is the matter? ” 

“ Father, I could not stay after Hearing — aftei^ 
hearing that you — that you ’’ 


THE PERJURY OF BRANDER CUSHING lid 


“Well?” 

“ Is it true that you have denied the service of the 
papers by the fire marshal’s deputy? ” 

“It is — true.” 

“ And you expect ” 

“Wait. Do you know what I face? Sidney, do 
you realize that I have got to make the fight of my 
life to keep out of State prison, and be branded as 
a murderer? Am I not justified in one falsehood to 
save a whole lifetime of honor?” 

“Will Fleming bring the case into court?” 

“You may be sure he will and that he will leave 
no stone unturned to convict me either of criminal 
negligence or of manslaughter.” 

“ Will I be summoned as a witness? ” 

“You will, of course. Sidney, you will not bear 
testimony against your father? Tell me, boy, you 
will not see me go to prison in eternal disgrace? 
What, boy? ” 

Sidney Cushing walked over to the window and 
looked out on the street. Then he turned and looked 
at his father, Brander Cushing will never forget 
that look, nor the words that followed. 


CHAPTER V 


THE compact; the mob gathers; athanasia and 
hermosa; the ship-yard disaster; the re- 
building; indictment; the trial; brander 

CUSHING AND THE QUESTION. 

F ather, do you mean that you want me to 

perjure myself to ” 

Save me from State prison — yes.” 

Silence. 

‘‘ You have taught me all my life to look upon 
falsehood as a thing of dishonor. Is there no other 
way? ” 

‘‘No other way, Sid, that I can see.” 

Silence. 

“ Then, God help me and you. Yes, father, I’ll 
stand by. I’ll swear no papers were served.” 

“ God bless you, Sid.” Brander Cushing again 
wiped the sweat from his face, “ You will never be 
sorry.” 

“ Do not speak of it again, father.” 

Sidney came over by the table. In the few min- 
utes he had been in the room his face had aged ter- 
ribly. His father shrank back, and in his turn re- 
vealed to his son the marks of the strain he had been 
under. 

“ Poor old pater ! ” said Sidney, using an affec- 

120 


THE COMPACT 


m 


tionate gesture and phrase common with him. “ We 
will stand or fall together. We never anticipated 
anything of this sort, did we? ” 

No. But it will come out all right. Some 
strange events have occurred to-day.” 

« Tell me.” 

Brander Cushing rapidly went over the occur- 
rences of the day, omitting his walk out to the burial- 
place. He made light of the scene in the loft and 
put it down to the act of a weak-headed visionary. 
The paper Angus had given him at dinner was lying 
on the library table. 

Sidney took it up and read it. 

‘‘ Why should any one want to warn you to keep 
away from the draughting-room ? ” 

Why should fool letters be written by any one? 
Sid, didn’t you know I get on an average a dozen 
letters a week threatening or begging or warning? 
I have got so used to the crank letter-writer that I 
don’t pay attention. You know what Dockville is, 
the dumping-ground of Europe for thieves, anar- 
chists, and jolt-headed reformers.” 

^‘But this might be a genuine warning from some 
friendly enemy.” 

Friendly enemy is good, Sid. No. Hark ! 
What is that? ” 

Father and son were silent. A dull roar of sound 
outside. They both went to the windows. At the 
first alarm, Angus and the other servants had fled 
to the rear of the house. 

A mob was assembling out in the street in front 


122 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


of the house. Black masses gathered from both 
ends. Under the light of the street lamps at the 
corners more men were gathering. Through the 
window father and son could hear the name called 
out in a hoarse howl, 

‘‘ Cushing ! Cushing ! ” 

Sidney put out his hand and laid it on his father’s 
shoulder. 

“ I’ll stand by, father.” 

Brander Cushing responded with an affectionate 
gesture, 

‘‘No need to telephone the police. There they 
are all right.” 

In among the mob charged a dozen mounted po- 
licemen. The noise swelled now to a roar that beat 
through the house like a wave flung on a coast of 
caves. 

In the uncertain light two figures were seen fight- 
ing their way up the steps. Then the next instant a 
shower of stones and bricks poured through the win- 
dows of the library. 

As if with the same thought in mind, father and 
son rushed to the front door and threw it open. 
Two figures were there on the top step. Stones, 
bricks, missiles of all kinds hurtled around them. 

Brander Cushing dragged the two into the house, 
then turned and slammed the door shut and bolted 
it. 

Hermosa and Athanasia confronted them. Down 
Athanasia’s cheek a trickle of blood was running. 

“ You girls again ! ” 


THE COMPACT 


US 


“ Yes, Mr. Cushing. We tried to get here earlier, 
but ” 

A great volley of stones crashed through the win- 
dows into all the front rooms. Blows were hammer- 
ing on the door. 

I couldn’t hurry with Athanasla, and she would 
come,” said Hermosa simply. She spoke as calmly as 
if she were making a formal call, and as if there was 
nothing out of the common in the hurricane of sound 
and riot that now came distinct through the broken 
windows. Sidney looked at her earnestly. 

“ Athanasia is hurt,” said Brander Cushing. He 
went into the dining-room and brought out a finger 
bowl with water and a napkin. 

“It is only a little thing. I do not think they 
intended to hurt us. But they did not see or 
know ” 

Athanasia spoke timidly, looking at Sidney while 
his father and Hermosa wiped the blood from her 
face. Sidney got over near the door, which was 
now splintered with the blows outside. 

And all four of this strange group stood there 
without any plan or any anticipation of what was to 
follow. It had always been another “ fool notion ” 
(so his friends said) of Brander Cushing never to 
permit a firearm of any sort in the house, and he 
never carried any kind of weapon on his person. 
If a man could not defend himself with his fists, 
Brander Cushing maintained, he ought to suffer for 
it. For the first time in his life he almost wished he 
now had a gun or a maxim or something to stop 


IM 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


these howling brutes so near. Yet — yet these were 
the men, some of them, whom he had seen that very 
day weeping great tears, shaken with heart-breaking 
sobs as they clasped their arms about wife or babe, 
and who, clinging thus, half-fainting, swaying to- 
gether, stared down into that ghastly trench contain- 
ing somewhere in its appalling length, their dead. 
And now they were simply come to demand payment 
of some sort for that hour of anguish, from the man 
whom they believed was, if not legally, at least mor- 
ally, to blame for that commercial murder. 

And the man, knowing even in that moment that he 
was legally and fully to blame for not doing at least 
all he could to protect precious life, had no righteous 
indignation to summon to his aid at this moment 
as the storm of missiles crashed through his rooms, 
and his personal property was being destroyed by 
these howling vandals. 

Father ! ” Sidney called out ; tell the girls to 
get out of danger. Run, girls, back into the kit- 
chen, upstairs ! Run, run, Hermosa ! Run, Atha- 
nasia ! ” 

He spoke their names as naturally as one would 
in such a moment of common human peril. A beam 
of wood crashed through the door. A sledge-ham- 
mer followed. And Brander Cushing, yielding to a 
moment of panic, seized the two girls by the arms 
and drew them into the dining-room. 

At that moment, when as in certain crises 
there is a secondary pause of fury as in a 
storm, rattling shots were heard. The police had 


THE COMPACT 


U5 


beeii reinforced. They were shooting with deliber- 
ate purpose. The blows on the door suddenly 
ceased. There was a yell of fear. Groans, cries, 
shouts, oaths, the sound of rushing bodies. And 
then — a roar that exceeded all the tumult in the 
street, a roar that seemed to gather force as it 
mounted and came on and poured through the street 
like a solid thing and culminated with a deafening 
concussion that jarred the ground and swayed the 
buildings and spent Itself in a grinding jolt that 
seemed like the melting of titanic forces in earth, air, 
and water together. 

The little group in the house stood pale, awe- 
smitten, heart-still. Then Sidney turned, tore open 
the splintered door, and stepped out. 

He stumbled over a groaning body. Then a 
police officer came up. 

What was that? ” 

An explosion of some sort, sir, down by the 
ship-yard quarters, sounded like.” 

A dull red glow in that quarter. It grew. Bran- 
der Cushing and the girls rushed out and stood by 
Sidney. The red glow spread and deepened like 
blood soaking up through a white cloth from a 
great wound. 

Oh, they have fired the ship-yard ! ” cried Her- 
mosa. 

They said they would,” said Athanasia, simply. 
And then both she and Hermosa busied themselves 
with the wounded man on the steps. 

The ship-yard ! The draughting-room ! His pre- 


126 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


cious plans ! His models and devices, result of long 
and painful years of testing and proving, being swept 
away! Brander Cushing gave no thought to any- 
thing else. He rushed down the steps like a mad- 
man. Sidney spoke to Hermosa. 

Take the man into the house if necessary. Not 
badly hurt, you say? Here, Angus!” to the serv- 
ant, who had just appeared from his hiding-place, 
give Miss Howard anything she needs for this 
man. I must help see after my father.” 

With the words he was gone, running after bis 
father, fearful for his safety, wondering in his heart 
j^hat the outcome of all that night’s work would be. 

But the mob had scattered with almost miraculous 
rapidity. After the first shock of the explosion, 
it had fied out of the street toward the scene of the 
fire, which now lighted up the whole city, leaving the 
police and the wounded and possibly dying in front 
of Brander Cushing’s house. 

As for Brander Cushing, rage and hate filled his 
heart as he ran on, making it almost impossible for 
the panting Sidney to keep up with him. The as- 
sault on his house was nothing by the side of this 
attack on his shipyard. Why had he not heeded 
the girl’s warning? He had been thrice a fool to 
neglect such a plain case. But how had they got 
in? And what infernal machine had done the work? 
There flashed over him the figure of the man Brodig. 
Fool! And again fool! When he had the creature 
in his hand, tamely to let him go! This scum of 
the dregs of Europe, these bomb-making, insane. 


THE COMPACT 


127 


frenzied class haters, why did the government tamely 
allow them freedom and even more? His heart was 
black with rage which swelled up over the facts of 
the anguish of the last three days, and when he 
reached the water front he was beside himself with 
scorn of himself and animosity towards the mob 
which had come by the thousand to gloat over the 
scene of destruction. 

It was a fearful sight. The explosion of a dyna- 
mite mill could hardly have made greater havoc. 
There was not a semblance of shape to a single build- 
ing belonging to the yard. A roaring volcano of 
flame shot up from the very center of the draughting- 
loft, and the walls of the offices beneath and on the 
side had toppled over into the street at the explo- 
sion. The glass roof over the building yard itself, 
supported by its immense steel arches, was com- 
pletely blown away, not an inch of it left. So tre- 
mendous had been the explosion that pieces of sheet 
steel weighing several tons had been blown out into 
the draymen’s yard. Brander Cushing, looking 
down, was aware that he was standing on a fragment 
which he knew belonged to the turret-swivel pieces of 
the new vessel. 

A great yell went up as the last of the massive roof 
timbers of the loft went crashing down into the 
crater below. 

Fools ! ” said Brander Cushing savagely. Cut- 
ting their own throats. Four thousand men out of 
work indefinitely.” 

That’s right, too,” said a man standing in the 


128 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


crowd near the shipbuilder, “ And will the works 
be rebuilt, do you think?” 

“ I hope not ! ” said Cushing, beside himself with 
mad hate of, every one. “ Before I rebuild. I’ll let 
the whole gang of brutes starve to death.” 

‘‘ Are you Mr. Cushing? ” the man asked. 

Sidney pushed in between his father and the man. 
The fire department charged through the spot. 
Everything was confused, and masses of men swayed 
all over the street. Sidney urged his father to move 
back away from all possible danger of any further 
explosion or of falling timbers. His father seemed 
dazed by the sight of the ruins. But in a few mo- 
ments he recovered his usual cool and deliberate man- 
ner, and with great energy sought out the police to 
see if anything could be done for any of the watch- 
men who might have been left in the buildings, 

“Fogerty is missing, and seven men on the extra 
night shift, Mr. Cushing.” It was Merrill, pale and 
exhausted. He had run all the way from home, 
and instantly on his arrival had made inquiry about 
the men. 

“ If they were in there, there is no hope for them.” 

None.” ' 

Have you any idea as to the cause or how the 
fire started? ” 

‘‘ A bomb, or a number of bombs, of unusual size.” 

Several men near by testified to hearing at least 
six different explosions in different quarters of the 
works, followed by a final explosion of tremendous 
volume. 


THE COMPACT 


129 


Come, father,” said Sidney gently. ‘‘ Come. 
There’s not a thing you can do here. Let us go 
home.” 

Brander Cushing yielded, after staying with the 
officers until it was practically certain that all the 
night watchmen had perished in the ruins. When 
he turned his back on the scene, Cushing’s ship-yard 
was a mass of smoking, ghastly ruin, its tangled 
skeleton of twisted steel and iron stretching along 
the water front, all that was left of the proud and 
strong concern that had stood there at the launching 
of the Republic, 

Sidney and his father, after submitting to an in- 
terview from the newspaper reporters, at last found 
a little sleep in the bombarded bedrooms, which An- 
gus and the frightened housekeeper had cleared out 
a little. 

Morning brought the papers and with them a 
summary of the day’s and night’s events. 

Seven men seriously wounded during the attack on 
Cushing’s residence. Two dead. A number of ar- 
rests by the police, who were seriously criticised for 
not dispersing the crowds quicker. The damage to 
Brander Cushing’s house mostly confined to broken 
windows and interior defacement. Neither he nor 
his son had been injured. The shipbuilding plant a 
complete ruin. Evidently the work of a bomb or a 
series of bombs, planted with great skill at different 
quarters of the works. 

There was heavy insurance on the shipyard. But 


130 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Brander Cushing would not say whether it would 
be rebuilt. He was under contract to build the new 
warship, and would in all probability meet the condi- 
tions if possible. But the reconstruction of the im- 
mense plant would be a task of enormous dimensions. 
Meanwhile four thousand men were out of employ- 
ment, and winter coming on. It was a calamity for 
Dockville, and a serious blow to its industries. 

It did not seem possible that the people who had 
lost their children in the factory fire would or could 
have perpetrated this outrage. Cushing’s deliber- 
ate and repeated statement, now known to all the 
public, that no notice to his company to erect fire- 
escapes had ever been served on him, was generally 
believed even by most of those who were personally 
bereaved. 

“ The events of yesterday and last night have cre- 
ated strong sympathy for Cushing. It is doubtful 
if any action taken by Fleming, the county attorney, 
can result in any indictment of the shipyard owner.” 

In another section of the paper Cushing read a 
significant item : “ County Attorney Fleming has 
postponed immediate calling of the grand jury pend- 
ing strict investigation of the ship-yard explosion. 
This meets general approval. The jury will prob- 
ably not meet until the begining of the January dis- 
trict court term.” 

Brander Cushing’s lip curled. 

‘‘ He wants to wait for this reaction in my favor 
to cool off. Fleming is no fool. He knows that un- 
der present feeling no indictment could be brought. 


THE COMPACT 


131 


It begins to look, Sid, as if we might not have 
to ” 

“ Yes, father. Pray God we don’t.” 

Silence. 

Will you build again ? ” Sidney asked eagerly, 
his face anxiously searching his father’s. 

“ Yes.” Brander Cushing got up from the table 
and his whole figure squared itself. His jaw set with 
strength. ‘^Yes. I’ll rebuild bigger and better 
than ever. But the best we can do, it will take time. 
Time, Sid, and no amount of either time or money 
can replace some of my models and plans. Lucky 
for us, boy, that I carry most of them in my head 
as well as on paper.” 

Father, will you prosecute any of the rioters ? 
Last night I recognized Burleigh, Sayles, Burns, 
McTairsh, Ranlow, and half a dozen other foremen. 
What will you do ? ” 

See that they have first choice at the new work. 
We can’t afford to make any more enemies. I’m 
inclined to think what happened last night may turn 
out a blessing in disguise for us after all. Let’s 
make the most of it.” 

And for t’he next four months, Brander Cushing 
made the most of it in a succession of energetic 
movements that amazed the people of Dockville. 

The works began to go up again with incredible 
swiftness and audacity. He cleared the ruins and 
brought in Building material. He worked at all 
hours. No one knew when he slept. He was every- 
where. No problem was too complex, no situation 


132 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


too puzzling for him. He employed more men from 
his old list than he could use. With all else he made 
a systematic payment of money to scores of families 
among the victims of the factory fire. 

Silas Fleming made no move. Apparently he took 
so little interest in the prosecution of the naval fac- 
tory fire that one of the papers took him sharply 
to task in a leading editorial. This was three months 
after the event. 

A month more went by and people had almost 
ceased to talk about the horror. Then, one morn- 
ing in the middle of January, the dailies were black 
with lurid accounts of another tenement-house trag- 
edy in Chicago. This time it was a series of defec- 
tive fire-escapes that buckled up like lead when 
loaded with the sudden weight of the unfortunate in- 
mates. Then the public — that fickle, cold-blooded, 
forgetful, sensation-loving public — began to ask 
what had become of Silas Fleming and his grand 
jury. 

That night Brander Cushing had confronted Sid- 
ney at dinner, exultant and triumphant over affairs 
at the new shipyard. 

“Well, Sid, what do you think? Things are 
moving, eh? We relay the keel next week.” 

“ It’s a miracle ! ” Sidney exclaimed. 

“ And I feel ten years younger than I did five 
months ago.” Brander Cushing stood up and shook 
himself. He looked superb. The animal vitality in 
the man was astonishing. 

Through all that incredible period of activity. 


THE COMPACT 


ll33 


Sidney had “ stood by ” in very sturdy fashion. 
He had been in every sense his father’s right-hand 
man. The knowledge he gained of all sorts in the 
rebuilding was of infinite value to him. He had been 
so incessantly busy that he had almost forgotten Pax 
Marston. He recalled that afternoon on the river 
where the girl had innocently given him the news 
that had started him back to Dockville that night. 
And he had remembered also with a thrill of pleasure 
the girl’s honest and undisguised expression of re- 
gret when he had told her he must return home and 
did not know when he might be in Washington again. 
He had parted from her with a feeling weighing on 
him that some kind of trouble rising out of this lie 
of his father’s would ruin any romance he might pos- 
sibly allow to grow up towards this bright creature 
who seemed to look so kindly at him. 

But now that his father was his old self again, 
and no hint of danger had disturbed them for several 
months, he began to think of Pax again. Only that 
morning in his room he had taken the little bow of 
ribbons out of its place to look at it thoughtfully. 

Two mornings later Brander Cushing, sipping his 
coffee, and glancing over the morning daily, stopped, 
laid the paper down, finished his coffee and then 
looked across at Sidney. 

“ The grand jury begins its investigation this 
morning.” 

“The grand jury?” 

“ The factory business. Fleming has got busy.” 


134 


A BUILDER OE SHIPS 


Pause. 

Shall we be summoned? 

^^No. It will be a district court case. I don’t 
think, Sid,” slowly, “ that Fleming can make out 
anything. He has been too slow.” 

A week later, at the breakfast table, Brander 
Cushing again paused over the morning paper, as 
he looked up from it over at his son. Both of them 
had been absorbed to the full extent of all their 
powers of mind and body during that week. The 
work at the yard was going splendidly. The men 
seemed to catch the ambitious energy of the mas- 
ter. There was outwardly no expression of ill-will 
towards him. He seemed to have the respect that 
formerly made him self-satisfied as he walked through 
the works. So far Silas Fleming and the grand 
jury had not obtruded. 

‘‘ It does not seem possible.” 

What, father? ” 

The grand jury has brought in its bill. It finds 
me guilty of ” 

‘‘ Of what ? ” 

‘‘ Manslaughter and criminal negligence.” 

‘‘ Oh, father ! it can’t be ! ” 

It is, through. Curse Silas Fleming ! 

Silence. 

What can we do ? ” 

Nothing but wait for the trial.” 

When will that be? ” 

I suppose this term.” 

‘‘On what grounds could the jury bring in a bill 


THE COMPACT 


135 


of manslaughter? The failure to provide the ? ” 

No. It seems the two doors on tho floor where 
most of the girls worked were locked. Of course, 
that was not my affair. And Fleming cannot prove 
it.” 

‘‘Who could testify about that? Nearly all the 
girls on that floor were killed.” 

“We know two who were not.” 

“Two?” 

“ Those girls, Hermosa and Athanasia.” 

“ Others came over the board.” 

“ But none of them except those two could really 
swear that the doors were locked. Besides, the 
paper says, one of the elevator men found in the 
debris the very lock of one of the doors, the bolt 
shot back, you understand.” 

Brander Cushing got up and shook himself. 

“ Come ! ” he said almost roughly. “ Let us go 
down to work.” 

“Father,” said Sidney gently. “You know I 
will stand by? ” 

“ I know it. DonH be afraid. It’ll all come out 
right.” 

That evening Sidney, obeying an impulse that he 
had more than once felt but in the busy weeks had 
not had time to gratify, went over to the double- 
decker to see Hermosa and her father. 

He shut his senses to the memory of the horrors 
of the place as he went up the dark stairs. He had 
forgotten the particular location of the room and 
had to inquire. 


136 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


When he knocked, there was at first no answer. 
After the second time he was answered by a man’s 
voice. 

He went in and found Hermosa’s father alone. 

He sat in the same place where he had been when 
Sidney burst in five months before. When Sidney 
spoke, the man’s face lighted up. 

Hermosa is helping Athanasia with her work. 
Her brother is in the hospital. Yes. He was in- 
jured during the trouble at your house. He was not 
doing anything. Just looking on. As he turned to 
run, after the police began to fire, he was struck in 
the back.” 

The man talked quietly, with a sad undertone, as 
one acquainted to the full with life’s tragedy. 

When will your daughter be back.? ” 

Soon, I think. I’m glad to see you, Mr. Cush- 
ing. It was a great thing you did, a great thing. 
I could almost see it.” 

“ I would rather not talk of it. Do you suffer 
much, Mr. Howard.? ” 

‘‘ Not at all. I am entirely free from pain.” 

Then for the first time Sidney noted, looking more 
carefully over into the dark corner, that the blind 
man was weaving something. He made a gentle 
inquiry. 

‘‘Yes, I am making horsehair braid. Hermosa 
lays out the colors in the proper order every morn- 
ing. I am very happy in my work.” 

Sidney watched him. One hand and arm were 
entirely well and free. The other hand and arm 


THE compact; 


137 


were so affected that he could use two fingers by 
keeping the arm slung in a frame which moved back 
and forth as he directed it from a curiously made 
harness of levers manipulated with the elbow of his 
other arm. He worked as he talked, in a quiet man- 
ner that actually rested the looker-on like a seda- 
tive. Something about the regular patient move- 
ment of the man’s fingers brought the tears into 
Sidney’s eyes. 

The door opened quietly and Hermosa came in, 
followed by Athanasia. 

The girls stopped at the sight of Sidney, who had 
risen. 

“ I called. Miss Howard, to ” 

He really had no clear motive in his mind for 
coming. That was the reason he could not finish 
his sentence. 

Hermosa smiled. Athanasia looked at Sidney 
earnestly. 

“ I have not seen either of you since — since you 
came so generously to warn us.” 

It did not do much good,” said Athanasia sim- 

ply. 

“ I am sorry to hear of your brother’s injury. 
He is better, I hope.” 

Athanasia colored. It was the second time in her 
life that Sidney had spoken to her directly. 

“ Jim ought not to have been there. But he is 
getting better.” 

Silence, which grew embarrassing for Sidney. 
Hermosa went over to her father and helped him with 


138 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


some little difficulty, and then sat down by him. The 
room was dimly lighted. 

‘‘ I am sorry, more than I can say, for your 
father, Mr. Cushing.” 

Sidney waited, thinking Hermosa had not finished. 
Athanasia sat near him. Her face looked anxious. 

“ Perhaps that helps me to say one or two things. 
Miss Howard. You will not mind if I ask some 
questions ” 

“No.” 

“ I may as well say that I regard my father’s posi- 
tion as critical. He will not acknowledge it. You 
have testified to the county attorney that the door 
was locked.? ” 

“ Yes,” slowly. “ It is true. It was locked.” 

“And the key.?” 

“ Was not in the door.” 

“You are sure of that.?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ By whose order was the door locked.? ” 

“I do not know.” 

“ Surely you don’t believe. Miss Howard, that my 
father ” 

“ No! ” sharply from Athanasia. 

Hermosa was silent. 

“ My father. Miss Howard, of course disclaims all 
knowledge of the locked doors in the factory. It 
must have been the act of some foreman.” 

“The foreman of our floor was killed in the ele- 
vator. Of course, I believe your father was not to 
blame for such an order as the locked doors. But 
I had to testify to the fact that they were locked.” 


THE COMPACT 


139 


‘‘ Oh ! ” cried Athanasia. 

And it must be a great relief to you, Mr. Cush- 
ing, that your father is free from the guilt of not 
providing escapes.” 

Silence. 

Athanasia spoke again, very timidly in manner; 
her remarkable voice contrasted with it so as to 
create an impression of two distinct personalities. 

‘‘ Mr. Cushing, what would happen if — if — it 
could be proved that the door was not locked? ” 

It would greatly weaken the indictment for 
manslaughter.” 

What will they do to your father if he is found 
guilty? ” 

“ Athanasia ! ” Hermosa rose and came over to 
the crippled girl. Athanasia looked perplexed, but 
did not cease to look earnestly at Sidney. A deeg 
red spot glowed on her cheeks. 

“ Miss Howard, it does not hurt me. Father and 
I have gone over all that, Athanasia.” (He spoke 
the word because she seemed so like a girl to him, 
her crippled bent form contrasted so with Hermosa, 
who stood by her.) If my father is found guilty 
on the charge brought, he will have to go to State 
prison for five years or more.” 

“Your father?” 

“Yes, my father! ” Sidney Cushing said it witK 
a sob. After all, he was not much more than a boy 
in years, and his affectionate nature, lacking a 
mother, had poured itself out about his father. 

The two girls instinctively moved nearer him. 
Athanasia, with a naive, almost childlike sympathy 


140 


A BUILDER OF^ SHIPS 


and wish to comfort him, softly touched his hand, 
and then shrank back as if she had been guilty of 
an unmaidenly act. In the dim light I do not think 
Sidney noticed it. 

“ But — but — they cannot find him guilty. He is 
so powerful and — and so good. He has not pun- 
ished any of the men for attacking him, and — the 
burning of the works. They can’t find him guilty.” 

‘^I hope they cannot.” 

“Mr. Cushing, I told the jury that the door was 
locked, but I don’t feel sure.” 

“ Athanasia ! ” Hermosa spoke in astonishment. 
Athanasia was silent. 

Sidney was amazed. Then Hermosa looked at 
Sidney with a look of explanation. Whether he 
understood or not, she could not tell. Only as Sid- 
ney returned her look he noted as well as he could, 
in the uncertain light of the room, her attitude of 
poise. From that minute there crept into his mind 
an image of such a character that he could not define 
it. The most he could say was that she commanded 
his most alert, intelligent interest. 

When he went away he spoke to the blind man 
last. The two girls were standing in the middle of 
the room as he shut the door, Athanasia following 
him with a gaze that seemed to burfi like a beam of 
light through the obscurity. 

The district court room was crowded when the 
great trial of Brander Cushing for manslaughter in 
the famous naval factory horror came off. 


THE COMPACT 


141 


There had never been such a case in Dockville. 
Brander Cushing was in many ways its foremost 
citizen. His wealth, his position, his skill, his na- 
tional prominence, all combined to make the trial 
one of commanding interest. 

He had hired the most skilful lawyers that money 
could retain. He was going to make the fight of a 
lifetime for his liberty. For as the trial proceeded 
he grew more and more convinced that his position 
was desperate. All the delays and technical quib- 
bles that the law permits had been used, and now the 
case had reached its most intense stage in the calling 
of witnesses who had survived the horror. 

The first witness called by Silas Fleming was the 
Fire Battalion Chief. 

After any number of objections had been offered 
by Cushing’s lawyers, the court ruled that the chief 
could tell his story in his own way. Then with all 
its harrowing details he told the story of the awful 
catastrophe. 

A negro porter was called next — one of the com- 
mon heroes of the tragedy. He testified: 

‘^The elevators ran until they couldn’t run. We 
were putting in the switch cables till they were over- 
run with water. They stuck. The circuit break- 
ers were blowing out. I had too much on my car. 
The car gave way. They jumped down and every- 
thing, on top of me. Because of the smoke I could 
not see where the floor levels were, and had to open 
my doors at random. They were holding my hands 
and pulling my hair and jabbing me in the face. I 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


do not know what I hit. The door would not close 
and all the glass came down on me. They fell on me 
and I could not stop them. They slid down the 
ropes. They jumped on the roof of my car. About 
twenty jumped on top of the roof. Even when the 
cars were far below them, the girls continued to 
jump, and their bodies wedged in between car and 
shaft. Above one elevator nineteen bodies were 
found so. It did not take long to finish the eleva- 
tors.” And he added with an ashen face, I haven’t 
had a good night’s sleep since.” 

Silas Fleming, with a significant look at the jury, 
now called Hermosa Howard. Hermosa took the 
witness stand, which was directly in front of where 
Brander Cushing was sitting. 

“Your name?” 

“ Hermosa Howard.” 

“Where were you working on the day of the 
naval supplies factory fire? ” 

“ I was an office stenographer.” 

“In Manager Brown’s office.^” 

“ Yes.” 

“ How did you happen to be on the seventh floor 
that day? ” 

“ I had been sent up there by the manager to 
get some figures from the foreman of that depart- 
ment.” 

“ Describe what happened when the explosion oc- 
curred.” 

“ We ran first to the elevator, and the man was 
not up. We knocked on the door, and he didn’t 
come. We then turned to the stairway door. It 


THE COMPACT 


143 


was locked and there was no key there. > > . I 

tried to break it open, and I couldn’t. . . . There 
was a woman forty years old there who was burned — 
Mary Herman — and Bessie Bischofsky, and there 
were others, and they were next to me and with me 
at the door; and I said to the woman, ‘You try! 
You may be stronger,’ She said, ‘ I can’t.’ So 
then I said, ‘ Let us all go at it ! ’ And we did. I 
can swear positively the door was locked.” 

Cross-examined by Cushing’s lawyer the story of 
her rescue by Sidney came out with glowing — yes, 
startling — clearness. Hermosa acted out parts of 
it. At points in her narrative different ones of the 
jurymen stood up. People in the court room swayed 
back and forth as Hermosa told how Sidney braced 
his foot on the board, and men and women in the 
audience held on to the backs of the benches in front 
of them as she told of the falling board and Sidney’s 
hair-breadth escape. A sound of applause rose over 
the room, quickly suppressed by the court, Bran- 
der Cushing’s counsel looked pleased at the impres- 
sion made by this witness. The jury would surely 
take some account of this service so bravely ren- 
dered by Brander Cushing’s son. 

Athanasia was called. 

Athanasia faced the crowded room with a calm 
face, but the red spot glowed deep on her cheek as 
she glanced first at Hermosa and then at Brander 
Cushing. After the preliminary questions, “You 
were with Miss Howard and the others at the door 
by the elevator on the seventh story? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 


144 } 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Describe what took place there.” 

We crowded up to the door and pushed on it. 
I am sure it was not locked. I saw it give way a 
little. I think something had fallen against it out- 
side in the entrance to block it.” 

Astonishment was in the faces of judge, jury and 
spectators. Silas Fleming suppressed an oath. Her- 
mosa held up her hand solemnly to warn Athanasia 
of her oath to tell the truth. But to all question- 
ing and cross-questioning, Athanasia simply re- 
peated the same story in the same words, as if she 
had committed them to memory. Nothing could 
shake her testimony. When she finally went down 
there was a look on her face such as few martyrs 
wear, and a bewildered judge, jury and audience. 
Only on Sidney’s face there crept during the last 
few minutes an expression of wonder and shame and 
sorrow that grew as the trial proceeded. 

Silas Fleming called one of the Italian girls who 
had escaped in some miraculous manner she could 
not describe. 

She said in substance : ^ 

We started to run, and the flames came out all 
around. Some of us began to catch fire. Almost 
none jumped till they were on fire. And those who 
weren’t had to keep away from those who were. 
The flames were near me. My mouth was full of 
smoke. I wanted to get on a table and jump. But 

* A part of this scene has been copied from a newspaper ac- 
count of an actual court trial. Credit should be given, I do not 
know the writer, C. M. S. 


THE COMPACT 


145 


the windows were too crowded, and I seen so many 
bodies lying dead on the ground that I thought I 
would be dead, too. , . . But the smoke and 

flames were terrible, and some of the girls said it 
was better to be smashed than burned, and they 
wanted to be identified. They didn’t want to jump, 
they was afraid. They was saying their prayers 
first, and putting rags over their eyes so they would 
not see. Up on the seventh they were jumping, too. 
I heard Yetta say to Natie, ^ You jump first.’ But 
when she had said her prayers she said, ^ No ; let me 
jump now.’ Then she began to raise her arms as 
if she was talking to some one up high and then she 
jumped.” 

In the afternoon, Fleming brought on one of the 
janitors, who produced a blackened lock with the 
bolt shot back. This lock he claimed to have found 
near the broken passage and stairway at the head of 
which Hermosa testified the girls beat with their fists 
so vainly. This lock evidently made a great impres- 
sion on the jury. 

It was the end of the second day before Brander 
Cushing was summoned. The witnesses had been 
disposed of with great rapidity. There had been 
little cross-examination. 

Cushing was called by his lawyer first to testify to 
his knowledge of the locked doors. He made out 
a clear case of not guilty, at least in the minds of 
the spectators. But the jury was impassive. Silas 
Fleming did not cross-examine this testimony. All 
he did at its conclusion was to reach out over the 


146 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


table and shove the blackened lock a little nearer the 
two rows of jurymen. 

Next came the matter of the fire-escapes, and 
Brander Cushing’s responsibility. The deputy fire 
marshal had been put on to swear that the papers 
had been duly served. Severely cross-examined, he 
was evidently embarrassed and confused by the fact 
that no record of such service could be found with 
the fire department. This made an evident impres- 
sion on the jury which all Silas Fleming’s ingenious 
questioning could not remove. 

It was Brander Cushing’s lawyer’s turn to ques- 
tion his distinguished client in denial. 

The afternoon was wearing away. The lights had 
just come on. Every one was tired and strained 
nervously by the rehearsal of the tragedy. Her- 
mosa’s face turned wistfully, with a mysterious deep- 
ening, toward Sidney. Athanasia, stooping even in 
her seat, never let her gaze waver from Brander 
Cushing’s gaze. And he, with Sidney confronting 
him, now leaned slightly forward as the lawyer put 
the question: 

“ Mr. Cushing, were these papers that the deputy 
fire marshal swears were served on you ever served? ” 

Brander Cushing looked steadily at Sidney as he 
answered. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE CONFESSION ; A VERDICT OF GUILTY ; THE 

judge’s sentence; brander cushing a felon; 

LETTERS FROM PAX ; SIDNEY AND THE WORKERS; 
THE MEETING IN THE CHURCH. 

T he lawyer repeated the question, Brander 
Cushing was so slow about answering. 

‘‘ "Were the ^papers ever served on you, Mr. Cush- 
ing?” 

“ They were.” 

The two words fell into the intense silence of the 
room like reports of an explosion. The lawyer 
leaned forward in amazement and said, 

They were not? ” 

‘^They were,’* 

Again that dropping of two words into the deep 
silence of the court room. Then a rustle like a sigh 
from all together ran through the audience like water 
running over glass. 

The judge, who was a trifle deaf, spoke sharply to 
the court stenographer. 

“ Read the question to the witness and his answer.” 
Question : Were the papers ever served on you, 
Mr. Cushing.? 

“ Answer : They were.” 

The stenographer sat down. The judge leaned 
147 


148 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


forward over his desl^ and eyed Cushing as if another 
man had come in and taken his place on the witness 
stand. As, indeed, he had. Silas Fleming had risen, 
one fat hand on the big table littered over with law 
books and papers. His lips were parted and his big 
eyes were staring. Sidney had also risen and 
stretched out an arm towards the witness. It was 
his word that broke the dead silence. 

“Father!” 

And then he sat down and bowed his head on his 
arms. 

Athanasia Ward was sitting on a bench just back 
of Sidney’s chair. She bent forward and stretched 
out her arms. Her hands could not quite touch Sid- 
ney. Hermosa, seated beside her, drew her back. On 
Hermosa’s face there was a tear, and her heart was 
beating fast. Over all the court room passed again 
that breath of intense interest following the mo- 
ments of stupefied suspense. Again the silence was 
broken by Brander Cushing’s calm, cold voice. 

“ The date of the service of the papers was Sep- 
tember the eighteenth. The deputy marshal served 
them in my office at the ship-yard in the presence of 
myself and my son.” 

Brander Cushing’s counsel turned to Silas Flem- 
ing. 

“ This witness seems to belong to the prosecu- 
tion,” he said. With a strange look at Cushing, he 
sat down. 

“You admit the papers were served.'^” asked 
Fleming. 


THE CONFESSION 


149 


“Ido” 

“ On the eighteenth? ” 

On the eighteenth.” 

“ In your office? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ In the presence of your son? ” 

“Yes.” 

“ Where are the papers ? ” 

“I destroyed them.” 

Silence, 

Your honor,” said Fleming in a low voice, I 
have no further questions.” He bowed to Brander 
Cushing as he had never bowed to any person in his 
life. The judge seemed to wake from a dream. 

“ That is all, Mr. Cushing. Call the other witness, 
Mr, Fleming.” 

Sidney took the stand. All eyes were on him. In 
that brief experience he had aged. No one could 
know the depth of feeling that flooded his soul as 
Silas Fleming put the question to him almost me- 
chanically : 

“ Were the papers of notiflcation for the erection 
of the fire-escapes on the naval factory building 
served on your father in his office by the deputy fire 
marshal? ” 

“ They, were.” 

“On the eighteenth of September? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“You saw them yourself? ” 

“I did.” 

Silence, 


150 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


That is all.” Fleming bowed again. Sidney 
stepped down. The jury as a man followed him as 
he went and sat beside his father. On the faces of 
both of them there was a look that every man re- 
spected. An awed silence pervaded that dingy old 
room where so much of human sordidness and dirty 
guilt had been common. And men looked into one 
another’s face with parted lips, asking questions si- 
lenty, still baffled by the event. 

Silas Fleming turned to the judge. 

That is our case, your honor.” 

He sat down again and whispered with his col- 
leagues, and then rose to make his summing up to the 
jury. 

Evidently Silas Fleming was not himself. His 
characteristic bullying, aggressive, storming manner 
that went naturally with his massive, ponderous arms 
and shoulders had received a distinct shock. He 
made a brief statement of the facts of the fire, but 
did not emphasize the fact of the locked door. At 
the end he dwelt briefly on the fact that the accused 
had admitted the service of the fire marshal’s papers 
and that the case of the State against him was 
thereby sustained. And then he closed with this re- 
markable appeal to the court: 

“ May it please this court and jury, the astonish- 
ing confession just now made by the accused puts 
this prosecution on a new basis. As the prosecuting 
attorney, I beg to ask the jury to bring in a verdict 
tempered with mercy. There is no proof that 
Brander Cushing was responsible for the locked 
doors. For his negligence in the matter of failure 


THE CONFESSION 


151 


to provide the fire-escapes as required by law, I 
plead, your honor, for indulgence to be shown as 
far as possible.” 

With this astonishing peroration, Silas Fleming 
sat down. 

And then the counsel for Brander Cushing rose to 
reply. 

This lawyer, a keen, fully equipped corporation 
counsel, skilled in all the technical subtleties of eva- 
sion and temporizing and the making of black into 
white in which long years of practise had made him 
master, had been whispering to Brander Cushing 
during Fleming’s hesitating and halting address. 
Evidently the whispering had not resulted in any- 
thing satisfactory, for when he rose his face be- 
trayed a baffled look. 

But as he went on, he warmed to the defense of his 
strange client. He dwelt on the fact of his lifelong 
honesty and probity, of his many acts of kindness 
shown to the people in the factory and the tenement, 
and in his own shipyard. He reviewed the evidence 
with keen analysis and proved conclusively that 
Cushing had not been guilty of ordering the doors of 
the factory rooms to be locked. And then he 
launched out into a magnificent appeal based on this 
man’s son’s heroic act at the scene of the disaster. 
It had nothing to do with the charge against Bran- 
der Cushing, and every one knew it ; but nevertheless 
it had an evident effect on the jury. And at the 
close, he touched on the admitted confession of the 
service of the papers, but pleaded with real eloquence 
for a verdict that would not consign to a future of 


152 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


shame and dishonor a man who had committed one 
fault in a whole lifetime of honorable and kindly 
deeds. 

The judge, an old man, cautious, cold of intellect 
and bearing, charged the jury. 

He sharply criticized the counsel for Brander 
Cushing for bringing forward as an argument Sid- 
ney’s action as if it had any bearing on the case. 
He coldly reviewed the testimony in regard to the 
locked doors and emphasized the accused’s confes- 
sion, and reminded the jury that the indictment under 
which Brander Cushing was being tried covered both 
manslaughter and criminal neglect. If he was con- 
victed on both counts it meant a penitentiary sen- 
tence of twenty-five years. If the jury should find 
for criminal neglect only, the law fixed the penalty 
at ten years for the maximum and five years for the 
minimum imprisonment, with a thousand dollars’ 
fine. 

The jury filed out. There was question with the 
court as to the time for waiting a verdict. The 
judge announced that the court would await the usual 
hour of adjournment, and if the jury did not arrive 
at a verdict by that time, adjournment would suc- 
ceed. 

In this waiting period, while a subdued murmur 
and buzz passes through the room, let us look into 
Brander Cushing’s soul and seek for the reasons that 
have brought about this deep crisis of his personal 
history. 

From the moment Sidney had promised, on that 


THE CONFESSION ' 153 

night of his return from Washington, to stand by his 
father in the denial of the service of the papers, 
Brander Cushing had never had a moment of real 
peace with himself. Sidney had requested his father 
never to mention the matter again, and during all 
the driving energy of the work at the shipyard, not 
a word had been spoken about it. But in spite of 
his most desperate efforts mentally, Brander Cush- 
ing never once succeeded in blunting a naturally 
keen sense of justice which he possessed. The 
thought of his own perjury did not disturb him 
greatly. He was one of those men who can say quite 
glibly, Oh, I don’t care whether there’s a future 
life or not. I’d just as soon die as not.” But it was 
different when Sidney, his own son, was involved. 
He loved him with a passion that was the accumula- 
tion of a love that had no other channel of expres- 
sion. His friends were very few. His wife had died 
when Sidney was a baby. He had no brothers or 
sisters. His entire forceful, dominant, vital, abound- 
ing personality went out towards this young man so 
like himself outwardly, so strong and brave and gen- 
erous and open-hearted. He loved him more than 
he loved himself. And the thought of forcing this 
bright clean spirit into perjury filled his soul with 
fear. 

The trial had stirred Brander Cushing to tHe 
depths of his deep nature. He had endured all the 
tortures of self-condemnation as witness after wit- 
ness had told the horrible story of that result of his 
own carelessness. And then, Athanasia ! He saw at 


154 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


once through the transparent guilelessness of the 
girl’s evident but vain attempt to shield him by per- 
juring herself about the facts of the locked door. 
And her reason for it? Sidney! His mind, ex- 
tremely keen and swift, searched his memory of her 
face as she sat in the court room, her gaze fastened 
on Sidney, the wistful, childlike, hopeless look that 
betrayed her feeling without any effort at conceal- 
ment. What! This crippled, hunchback girl ready 
to perjure herself and contradict her dearest friend 
for the sake of his son and himself! And he, Bran- 
der Cushing, eager to thrust his son into the lifelong 
infamy of a lie that would brand them both for all 
time ! 

He had never known a real sacrifice, not even for 
Sidney. How could he make this one ? The result — 
ignominy, shame, loss of reputation, a felon’s fate, 
dishonored old age, his ambition shattered, lifelong 
ruin ! Surely a lie was better for them both than all 
that hell on earth that stood over against the speak- 
ing of two words Instead of three. On the other 
hand, there was the possibility of acquittal. Even if 
his confession of guilt made the indictment justified, 
the very fact of his confession threw him on the 
mercy of the court. ^ 

All the intricate workings of the human heart will 
never be known. All that prompted Brander Cush- 
ing to save his son that day from perjury can never 
be analyzed. But as he sat there waiting for the 
jury to come in with its verdict, he held his son’s 
hand as he used to when he walked out with him when 


THE CONFESSION 


155 


he was a little boy. Somehow he felt that, no mat- 
ter what happened, the hand that touched his would 
be strong enough to pull his soul out of hell. 

Did you ever have a little child, as it walked by 
you, slip its little hand into yours without being 
asked? And have you, as its soft little palm gave it- 
self with perfect confidence to your bigger one, been 
able to say, “ Thank God, I am pure, and worthy of 
this little one’s confidence in me? ” 

Such was Brander Cushing’s feeling as he sat there 
that day waiting for that jury to come back. 

When they finally did file into the court room, it 
seemed only a few minutes since they had left. The 
conversation instantly ceased. The judge came in 
from his room back of the platform. The court bail- 
iff spoke his word, and the foreman of the jury stood 
up. He held a slip of paper in his hand. 

‘^Are you ready, gentlemen of the jury, with a 
verdict? ” 

We are, your honor. We have been on our 
knees asking God to direct us. We find the accused 
guilty of criminal negligence in the matter of the 
failure to provide the fire-escapes required by the 
law, and we commend him to the mercy of the court.” 

Brander Cushing stiffened in his chair. His face 
was like marble. The judge beckoned Fleming and 
Cushing’s attorney up to the desk. There was a 
whispered conference. 

Is there any reason why this case should not be 
closed right here ? ” 

‘^None that I know of,” said Fleming. He was 


156 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


simply dumbfounded by the course of events. Cush- 
ing’s counsel simply said, as he shrugged his 
shoulders, 

“ My client says he prefers going to State prison 
to waiting in the filthy county jail for the outcome of 
a useless appeal.” 

“ There is nothing else, then, gentlemen,” said the 
judge, except to pronounce sentence. Is that your 
final word? ” 

“ It is, your honor.” 

The lawyers went back to the table and sat down. 
Again Cushing’s lawyer whispered to him. Again 
he shook his head. 

The judge, after a moment, said slowly. 

Prisoner at the bar, have you anything to say 
why sentence should not be pronounced on you 
now? ” 

Brander Cushing stood up. His strong fingers 
were clasped around the railing in front of the jury 
box. He looked straight at the men who had just 
given their verdict, then turned to the judge and 
said distinctly: 

No, your honor.” 

The judge hesitated a moment, then spoke gravely 
and with unusual feeling. 

“ There is no discretion with the court. The law 
fixes the minimum penalty at five years’ imprison- 
ment and a thousand dollars’ fine. The recommen- 
dation for mercy cannot carry with it any change of 
that sentence. I therefore sentence you, Brander 
Cushing, on the finding of the jury, to a term of five 


THE CONFESSION 


15T 


years’ imprisonment in the State penitentiary and 
the payment of one thousand dollars’ fine as fixed by 
law. And,” he added with an emotion as unusual as 
the whole trial had been, ‘‘ May the mercy of God, 
which all of us need, be extended to you and yours.” 

After a moment of awed silence the crowd slowly 
left the court room. Hermosa had great difiiculty 
in getting Athanasia out. Silas Fleming stood awk- 
wardly by his table looking at Brander Cushing. 
Then he suddenly crowded over to where he stood 
and held out his hand to him. Cushing did not seem 
to see it. Fleming’s great red face went the color of 
purple. He drew his hand back, stood awkwardly a 
moment and then backed away without saying any- 
thing. 

Father and son faced each other. Brander Cush- 
ing’s arm was over Sidney’s shoulder. At once it 
seemed to the older man as if this big young fellow 
.was his little boy again. He smiled at him and said : 

“It’s all right, Sid. Don’t worry. It will all 
come out all right.” 

Sidney choked. What could he say with all those 
people about The most tragic event of his life was 
taking place before all those morbidly curious 
strangers. A few intimate friends of the two had 
come up and were trying to say a few stammering 
words of awkward sympathy. They were shocked 
unspeakably. The whole affair bewildered the entire 
community of Dockville. There were rumors of an 
appeal to the governor for a pardon. The morning 
papers would contain in detail the account of all the 


158 A BUILDER OF SHIPS 

remarkable day’s events. And no heartache would 
be spared. No vivisection of tenderest private feel- 
ings would be wanting. The horror of it blinded Sid- 
ney as he stood there feeling as weak and helpless as 
a child with his father’s arm around him. 

“ What made you do it, father I would have 
stood by as I promised.” 

Brander Cushing smiled at him. 

‘‘ I am not sorry, Sid. I am not sorry.” 

The officer of the court came up and gently 
touched Cushing’s arm. 

‘‘ You’re in my custody, sir.” 

Can I go with him as far as ” Sidney made 

an appeal. 

You can go as far as the door if you want 

to.” 

^‘Better not come, Sid. The county jail is not 
very clean.” Brander Cushing spoke calmly, with 
a strange smile. 

But Sidney linked his arm in his father’s and the 
officer by the side of them moved out of the court 
room across the street to the county jail, where 
Brander Cushing was to await the sheriff’s time to 
take him to the penitentiary. 

At the door of the jail, Brander Cushing turned 
to his son. 

I don’t want you to come in, Sid. Go on with 
the work. Get your friend Gordon Ford to come 
and stay with you.” 

0 father ! Father, I can’t bear it ! ” Sidney 
turned and flung his arms around his father’s neck, 


THE CONFESSION 


159 


and then, as if he were a child again, he kissed his 
father, and Brander Cushing for the first time that 
day yielded to emotion. Down his hard white face 
tears ran. 

Yes, you can, Sid. Because you are a Cushing. 
Remember, boy. I may be guilty of neglect but I 
have never deliberately been guilty of dishonor. We 
can live it down.” 

Even there, under the shadow of the penitentiary, 
Brander Cushing’s iron determination found expres- 
sion. And even then, Sidney wondered at it as he 
turned and, in despair himself, went away to creep 
up to the house, fiercely denying interviews with sev- 
eral newspaper men who were about the door. Once 
inside the home, he locked the door, told Angus to 
keep every one out, walked into the library, and flung 
himself down on a couch, crying out in great sobs : 

“Oh, father! father! What made you do it.f^ 
What made you.^ ” 

Justice in this country has a proverbial habit of 
going on lame feet. But there are exceptions. Some- 
times there is a swiftness about its actions which is 
almost as appalling as its delays. 

The counsel for Brander Cushing had been ready 
and able to use every means of delay that the law 
permits. But from the moment the jury had brought 
in their verdict even these shrewd agents of the mis- 
carriage of justice saw there was not the glimmer 
of a hope for their client. He had openly acknowl- 
edged his guilt, and there was no possibility of any 
other court reversing the decision. They could in- 


160 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


terpose all the postponement that great wealth and 
influence can buy, but Brander Cushing, after all the 
facts were before him, fiercely told his counsel to let 
the law take its way with him. Rather than linger in 
a filthy county j ail he was ready to be sent up to the 
State prison, which at least was kept on strict sani- 
tary principles. 

So, one day, only a brief time after the trial, 
Brander Cushing, shipyard contractor, man of busi- 
ness and wealth, distinguished for great qualities as 
an inventor and builder of warships, walked into a 
little room seven by eight, and realized after some 
fashion that that little cell was to be his home for 
five years; also that he was now a convict, fed and 
clothed and housed at the expense of the State, and 
that his career as a man and a human being among 
men was over. 

But — was it? 

He would not permit Sidney to go with him to the 
State prison. He said good-by to him the day before 
the sheriff took him out of the jail. JThey were al- 
lowed to be together alone. 

‘‘ I’ve written out some things for you, Sid.” 
Brander Cushing gave Sidney some papers. 
look to you to go on and finish the Columbia, Our 
contract can be extended over the three years if 
necessary. There is no reason why the men in the 
yard should suffer from a shut-down, and I have 
been allowed to make arrangements with Macdonald 
and Stuart to run things as usual. Sid, if you want 
to do anything for me, see that the new ship equals 


THE CONFESSION 


161 

my ambition. It will bring honor to the name of 
Cushing.” 

“ Oh, father ! How can I go on ? My heart is 
broken ! I cannot live through it ! ” 

Yes, you can. Fm living through it.” Bran- 
der Cushing spoke almost roughly to hide the emo- 
tion he did not want Sidney to see. 

They parted after kissing each other. And Sid- 
ney, bewildered, numbed all through by the stroke, 
went back to the empty house, feeling as if the world 
had come to an end and asking God to curse him 
that he might die. 

But it is a remarkable and hopeful fact that 
people do not die even when they think their hearts 
are broken. They continue to live, and, strange as 
it may seem, they have many happy days, and time 
puts its soothing hand over deep red wounds of grief 
and heals them. 

So Sidney Cushing came out of that seemingly 
bottomless horror of hopelessness and grew to see 
the day when he could smile and work again as if 
the world contained all the things worth having. 

A number of important factors made this possible. 
Among these there was, first of all, the work at the 
yard. After the first numbness of the horror had 
passed he found that he was surrounded by an at- 
mosphere of respect and sympathy that helped him 
wonderfully. The officers in charge, Macdonald and 
Stuart, paid him the respect and almost reverence 
such men know so well how to give. The men in the 
yard seemed to feel the responsibility thrown on them 


162 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


to do their best. After all, they said among them- 
selves, justice had been done. The guilty man was 
being punished. This fine young fellow who had 
risked his life to save the girls was not to blame for 
his father’s faults. He was nerve, he was, to go on 
with the ship while his dad was working out his time. 
And so every one of the four thousand blackened, 
rough, but for the most part skilled workmen in 
Cushing’s shipyard went to work every morning with 
a united feeling to satisfy Sidney with a good job. 
The Columbia would beat every dreadnought 
afloat. The young fellow would be proud of it. 

All this kept Sidney so busy physically that he 
was astonished to find himself after a while sleeping 
soundly, and every morning when he woke he would 
kneel and say his morning prayer asking for mercy 
on that figure over in the penitentiary. Then down 
to the yard to work (for his sake) with desperate 
energy, in order to forget as well as remember. 

There were other things that gave interest to life 
at this strange time in Sidney Cushjng’s career. 

There was a letter — yes, two letters — that had 
come from Washington. 

The first had come a day or two after the news of 
his father’s indictment. 

Pax Marston wrote: 

‘‘ My Dear Mr. Cushing : This is to assure you 
of my deep sympathy with you in the great trouble 
that has come upon you and your father. I feel sure 
all will come out well, for your father will be able to 


THE CONFESSION 


163 


prove that he was not guilty. I was troubled when 
you went away so soon that day after our talk to- 
gether on the cruiser, and I felt sure from your man- 
ner that some bad news must have come to you. I 
wish I could do something to prove my friendship for 
you. Father and mother and Cousin Ed also wish to 
be remembered, and send you their best wishes. 

‘^Very heartily your friend, 

“ Pax Marston.” 

The second letter had come the day after his 
father was sentenced. She wrote: 

“My Dear Friend: I may call you so, may I 
not? The news that has just reached us is terrible. 
It seems as if some great mistake had been made. 
We cannot believe that this has come to you. You 
will believe, won’t you, that my deepest sympathy is 
with you. What a fearful thing to happen ! What 
will you do? You will be brave, won’t you? And 
— do not forget, I am thinking of you with a great 
prayer in my heart that you may have strength given 
you to bear this great trouble. 

‘^Always your friend, 

“Pax Marston.” 

To these letters, which revealed, in words and 
phrases, the feeling that Pax Marston had allowed 
on such brief acquaintance to spring up in her heart, 
Sidney had replied, repressing his own feeling to a 
large extent. He had deep in him a sense of horror 


164 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


of his position, a feeling of hopelessness, now that 
he was the son of a convict. The brand of it seemed 
almost to be stamped on his face where all men could 
see. But he sobbed as he kissed the letters and put 
them away with the bow of ribbons — those bright 
bits of color that seemed every time he looked at 
them to reflect the vivacity and loveliness of Pax 
Marston’s face. 

Other events were added to these. Hermosa and 
Athanasia! How strangely those girls seemed to 
become a part of his life history — more strangely 
after his father’s sentence than before. 

The day of the trial, after Hermosa had succeeded 
in getting Athanasia out of the court room, she 
took her to her own room across the hall from her 
father’s. The two girls were alone there. Since 
the factory fire, both girls had secured places in a 
department store in Dockville. Hermosa had found 
a position in the office force as stenographer to the 
manager of the mail order service. Athanasia had 
refused to go anywhere without Hermosa, so Her- 
mosa had found a place for her as bundle-wrapper in 
the toy department. Athanasia was wonderfully 
quick and deft with her fingers. 

She quieted quickly when once in the room. Her 
mother, who worked in one of the hotels as helper 
in the laundry, had not yet come in. 

After a while, Hermosa said: 

Athanasia, why did you perjure yourself? You 
knew the door was locked. It was of no use for you 
to lie, after all the other girls had said.” 


THE CONFESSION 


165 


‘‘ You know why.” 

“ How do I know? ” 

“ I did it to save him.” 

‘‘To save — Mr. Cushing? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Which one? ” 

“ Mr. Sidney. I love him.” 

“ Athanasia ! ” 

“I do. So do you.” 

“ Athanasia ! ” Hermosa ran over to her and al- 
most roughly put her hand over Athanasia’s mouth. 
As soon as she had taken it away, Athanasia said, 
“You know you do, Hermosa. We both love 
him.” 

“ No.” 

“Yes, we do. Wouldn’t you go to jail for 
him? ” 

“ That would be easy.” 

“ Wouldn’t you die for him? ” 

“ Oh ! That would be easier ! ” 

“ Easier?” 

“ Yes, yes ! Oh, Athanasia ! poor simple heart ! 
what do you know about love? ” 

“ I don’t know much. Do you think any one ever 
could love me, Hermosa? ” 

Silence, except for Hermosa’s soft crying, as she 
sat near Athanasia and caressed her black hair. 

“ Do you think it is wrong for me to love him, Her- 
mosa? ” 

“ I don’t know.” 

“ Is it wrong for you to love him ? ” 


166 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Yes, yes ! 0 God forgive ! He is not for either 
of us. Athanasia, tell your heart to be quiet.” 

“ It is quiet, Hermosa, whenever I think of him. 
He is so brave and so good. My heart is quiet when 
I think of him. Is yours, Hermosa? ” 

Oh, be still, Athanasia ! What do you know 
about hearts? Think of what has happened to him 
to-day. Do you think his heart can find room for 
any one but his father now? ” 

“ But he will need more friends now than ever, 
won’t be, Hermosa? Won’t he need us to love him 
more than ever now? ” 

Hush, child. It is wrong for you — for me — to 
think of him so.” 

But I don’t see why,” Athanasia persisted. If 
he has lost his father, how can he live unless some 
one loves him? ” 

‘‘ Pax Marston can love him.” 

^‘Pax Marston? Who is she?” 

Never mind, Athanasia. You must not love Mr. 
Cushing any more.” 

‘‘ I cannot help it. I shall love him till I die. It 
will not do him any harm. How can it? Does it 
harm people to love? ” 

‘‘ It kills some.” 

But it will not kill me. I shall pray every night 
for him and his father. Will you, Hermosa? ” 

‘‘Yes, yes ! That will do no harm.” 

“ I think God will forgive me for lying about the 
door, don’t you? 

“Yes.” 


THE CONFESSION 


167 


God is good, isn’t he? ” 

Yes, yes. God is good, Athanasia, and I am a 
wicked, wicked girl. Pray for me, Athanasia, when 
you pray for — for them.” 

“ I pray for you every night, Hermosa. You 
know I do.” 

Thank God ! ” said Hermosa gently. Then as 
Mrs. Ward came into the room, Hermosa slipped out 
and went in to her father. 

Sidney Cushing was only dimly conscious af times 
of all this as he went about his work. But he seldom 
saw either of these girls of the common people. Once 
he called and found Mr. Howard alone. Once he met 
Hermosa and Athanasia on the street and stopped 
and spoke a moment to them. But the experience hei 
was having was so deep, his work was so exacting, 
his memory of Pax Marston was at times so engross- 
ing, that he thought of the girls he had rescued from 
the fire (whenever he did think of them) as part of 
an experience which he would like to forget instead 
of remember. 

As days went on, he grew more restless in many 
ways. Religiously he had been a ritualist. Some- 
how there crept into his soul a great longing for 
deep religious experience. He found himself Sun- 
days spending the time at first aimlessly. He would 
take long walks in the woods. One week Gordon 
Ford came and stayed with him. It was not satis- 
factory. The two had no deep things in common. 
Besides, he fancied Ford felt embarrassed by Bran- 
der Cushing’s conviction. 


168 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Then he took to going about to the different 
church services in Dockville. There were fifteen dif- 
ferent church organizations in the town. He would 
slip into a back seat, generally stay through a ser- 
vice, and go out before any one could speak to him. 
Many times his heart was moved and his hope quick- 
ened by a sentence in a prayer, by the aspiration of 
a hymn, or by some great thought in a sermon. 

One Sunday he found himself in a little church 
building down near the river. He had declined a 
seat down the aisle offered by a pleasant young man, 
and had sat down in a rear pew. A little gallery ran 
around half way up the side of the building, as if the 
building committee had run out of funds at that 
point. As he looked around before the service be- 
gan, he saw, at the extreme end of this little unfin- 
ished gallery, Hermosa and Athanasia. Athanasia’s 
mother was with them. 

About the middle of the sermon, Hermosa’s glance 
wandered over the church. Finally her eye saw Sid- 
ney. The sermon was different from any Sidney 
had yet heard. It was helping him. He was listen- 
ing with an intentness that Hermosa could not help 
noting. Her own look went back to the preacher, 
and in the closing prayer that followed the sermon, 
her heart sought for the peace of God. But when she 
stood up during the last hymn, she knew that Sidney 
had seen her and Athanasia, and as she came down 
the little stairs she met him in the vestibule, where 
he had evidently waited to speak to her. 


CHAPTER VII 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS; THE BLIND MAN; HER- 
MOSA AND HER RELIGION; WAR QUESTIONS; ED 

marston’s sudden appearance. 

H e spoke very simply to them. 

I’m glad to see you. I did not know this was 
your church.” 

‘^Yes. Mrs. Ward and Athanasia and I have 
been members here for a long time. Won’t you meet 
our minister? Mr. Freeman, this is Mr. Cushing.” 

Mr. Freeman greeted Sidney heartily, spoke a 
word to Hermosa, Mrs. Ward and Athanasia, and 
then turned to some others of his people. If he knew 
who Sidney was he had not betrayed the fact by any- 
thing in his words or his manner. There could have 
been nothing more simple and unaffected than his 
greeting. 

Sidney went out with the three and walked along 
by Mrs. Ward. Athanasia’s mother had met Sidney 
only twice. She was a plain-looking woman, but her 
face bore marks of a peace that made it attractive. 
After a few words in which she repeated what she had 
said to Sidney the first time she met him by way of 
gratitude for the rescue of her daughter, Mrs. Ward 
said quietly : 


169 


170 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


‘‘Would you feel able to come and take a meal 
with us some time? ” 

Sidney was astonished, but his natural good breed- 
ing concealed his astonishment from Mrs. Ward. 

“ Certainly, Mrs. Ward. I should be glad to 
come.’^ 

“ Sometimes, Sunday evenings, Hermosa and her 
father come over to our rooms <and we have a plain 
meal together. Could you come to-night? Mr. 
Howard wants to see you. You have no idea how 
eager he is for company at times.” 

Hermosa and Athanasia were walking in front. 
Hermosa turned a little and said: 

“ Yes, father has often said he would enjoy a good 
visit with you. But he has never dared ask for any 
of your time. We all know how busy you must be.” 

“ I shall be glad to come, Mrs. Ward, and ” 
(speaking to Hermosa) “ I shall be glad to talk with 
your father and hope to get better acquainted with 
all of you.” 

“At seven o’clock,” said Mrs. Ward. And Sidney 
parted from them at the next corner, taking off his 
hat with the same manner he would have shown to 
ladles of title, and going his way to the big empty 
house somewhat astonished at the invitation, but 
really excited to a degree in anticipation of what the 
evening might have in store for him. 

Let it be said for the benefit of the incredulous, for 
those who never get out of the drawing room of life 
into its kitchen and back yard, that Sidney Cushing 
was absolutely devoid of class feeling in any form. 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 171 


When he walked into the shipyard and viewed its 
driving energy, he could truly say that every one of 
the blackened, grimy, sweating, hoarse-voiced men at 
work there, stood for a real human being to him. 
Also it had been his happy education, from the time 
he was born, to honor labor. Brander Cushing had 
ground that into him from the start. Any human 
being who was handling tools, making something that 
was needed, adding to the world’s necessities, was a 
human being to be reverenced and honored. 

I don’t care if he is the son of the Great Mo- 
gul ! ” he once shouted to a well-known business man 
in Dockville, who was trying to find an excuse for the 
son of a rich man who was an idler ; “ I don’t care 
how much money his father has. If that boy can’t do 
anything but black shoes, he ought to be doing it. 
Let him use his hands if he hasn’t brains enough to 
get a job with his head.” 

So it did not occur to Sidney that he was con- 
descending in any way to take tea with a woman 
who worked in a hotel laundry, and two girls who 
worked in a department store, and a blind paralytic 
who made horsehair ornaments for a living. Were 
they not simply toilers in the world, like himself? 
And as he sat in the library of the big silent house 
that afternoon, for the first time the question oc- 
curred to him with almost absurd suddenness : Are 
warships, after all, more necessary to the world than 
the toil that keeps these tenement dwellers so busy 
all day? ” 

It must also be said by way of introduction to Sid- 


172 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


ney’s acceptance of this invitation that he experi- 
enced a feeling of satisfaction, permeated with real 
pleasure, when he thought of these plain toilers of the 
people, and their simple gratitude to him for his ser- 
vice to them during the horror through which they 
had passed. Among Brander Cushing’s acquaint- 
ances, there were some who after the name of con- 
vict had been put on him were unable to resume the 
same relations to Sidney. 

Sidney felt the deepening shame and horror of his 
situation as time went on. A few of his choicest 
friends were unchanged toward him. But others 
— he was doubtful about them. He could not trust 
them. But these people in the double-decker? These 
people, who were related to him in the special tie of a 
grim and tragic story of life, these were even more 
closely drawn to him on account of his father’s crime 
and its punishment. And he knew as he walked along 
towards the tenement that whatever else he was going 
to that night, he was going into a circle of perfect 
trust and sympathy for which his clean, affectionate 
nature hungered. 

With ajl this, it must clearly understood that Sid- 
ney Cushing had not the slightest idea that Hermosa 
or Athanasia regarded him in any other light than 
that of a friend. And his own feeling towards Pax 
Marston prevented and precluded any other senti- 
ment toward either of them. 

The scene at his father’s trial had not opened his 
eyes. He had seen simply an act that expressed on 
the part of this feeble-minded girl a feeling of re- 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 173 


gard for his father and a desire to shield him, Sid- 
ney, from dishonor. But that each of these girls 
loved him, each in her own way, was a condition so 
remote from his thought of them, that it never even 
suggested itself to him. 

When he went up to Mrs. Ward’s room, he found 
Hermosa’s father there wheeled in across the hall in 
his reclining chair. He greeted Sidney earnestly and 
while the girls were helping Mrs. Ward about the 
meal, he and Sidney talked together. 

He had not talked with the blind man two minutes 
before he began to be amazed at his knowledge of 
men and events. Where did he get it, this human 
wreck, passing the leaden years in this double-decker 
tenement, shut in away from the noise and conflict of 
human passions? Hermosa? Was she the answer? 
Perhaps it was from that moment that Sidney Cush- 
ing began to think that Hermosa Howard was more 
than a simple toiler in the army of working women, 
and to observe her more closely and with growing in- 
terest. 

“ How have you been lately ? ” Sidney asked with 
the gentle courtesy common to him. 

I am always well, I have no pain. And you ? ” 

I have never been sick. I have much to be thank- 
ful for that way.” 

Yes. What a blessing it is to have one’s facul- 
ties! There is nothing more terrible than loss of 
one’s mental powers. Will you tell me something 
about the new ship ? I am much interested in it.” 

Sidney began to say something about the size and 


174 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


general dimensions of the Columbia, when to his 
amazement Mr. Howard interrupted him. 

You will excuse me. But I know all that. What 
I want to know is your opinion about the value of 
such a vessel as the Columbia compared with that 
new dreadnought just planned by the Argentine Re- 
public. You know the figures are given as 760 feet 
at its waterline and the extreme breadth at the same 
point 102 1-2 feet, an estimated speed of not less 
than 24 1-2 knots an hour (that is over 27 miles, 
isn’t it?) and a displacement of 32,000 tons. Sup- 
pose a war should break out with Argentina? The 
range of this new vessel contemplated by Argentina 
is computed at 21 miles effective target practice, 
while the Columbia's best guns will not carry over 20. 
Besides, the new Argentine vessel carries a fighting 
force of 1,400 men and 126 officers, which is 300 
more than the Columbia can handle.” 

Sidney stared at the blind man in stupefied aston- 
ishment. 

“ But what — what earthly chance is there that the 
United States will ever go to war with such a country 
as the Argentine Republic?” 

“ But if we should, what would hinder even a little 
country like Argentina from beating our navy into 
scrap iron? This new vessel, which is the superior 
of every one of our warships, even this one you are 
building, could begin firing nearly two miles in ad- 
vance of any vessel of our fleet. She could disable a 
dozen of our ships before they could get within 
range.” 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 175 


‘‘ Then,” said Sidney with a laugh, we must build 
a bigger one than theirs.” 

Ah ! That is the only answer. I see you have 
thought it out. And then — ^when will the building of 
bigger ones cease. ^ ” 

‘^When one country or the other runs out of 
funds.” 

Or the people refuse to pay the bills.” 

There is little danger of that,” said Sidney care- 
lessly. 

We must not be too sure.” The blind man spoke 
softly. The people, the people, what do we know 
about the people.^ They are the mysterious unknown 
factor in all history. They are long-suffering, they 
are slow, they are stupid, they are sometimes unrea- 
sonable, they will permit all sorts of injustice up to a 
certain point, against themselves, but always there 
comes a time when the people act. Sometimes sud- 
denly, sometimes slowly, but they act. And then all 
carefully laid plans of tyrants and rings of power- 
fully selfish men come to naught, and the people have 
their way. That is history. The history of the 
world, Mr. Cushing, is in the end made, not by rich 
legislators or cunning kings and despots, but by the 
common people, the same sort of people who followed 
Jesus around over Palestine. But I think we ought 
to remember that these common people know more 
and think more now than they did in Jesus’ time. 
It is because they are gradually, thanks to him, get- 
ting more abundant life.” 

Sidney sat still in astonishment. And before He 


176 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


spoke again he was invited bj Mrs. Ward to come 
into the next room where the meal was served. 

Hermosa had come into the room and started to 
wheel her father up to the table. Sidney offered to 
do it. 

‘‘I’m used to this,” Hermosa said. “ I know just 
how.” 

“ Then you can teach me.” 

“ You pull this lever off the hind wheel to begin 
with. Then you push down, not too hard, on this 
back piece.” 

“ I see. Let me do it, Miss Howard.” 

Hermosa stepped back and Sidney gently pushed 
Ihe chair into the other room and up to the place 
Mrs. Ward indicated. 

When they were all seated, there was a moment of 
quiet. It flashed over Sidney in that moment that 
these people were all Christians, members of the 
Church and believers in the religion into which he 
himself had been born. Under the impulse of the 
new restlessness and religious hunger that had lately 
beset him, he began to wonder vaguely whether in 
any way he might learn or receive what he yearned 
for, here. 

It was so vague and undefined that he did not know 
what it meant at the time. Afterwards, he remem- 
bered vividly every detail of that table scene. 

They were saying softly together an old German 
grace. The blind man seemed to set the time for the 
rest, as they repeated with a gentle gladness ; 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 177 


For these and all thy gifts of love, 

We give thee thanks and praise ; 

Look down, our Father, from above. 

And bless us all our days. Amen. 

‘‘We feel proud to have you with us to-night,” 
said Mrs. Ward, as she passed Sidney a plate of 
bread and butter sandwiches and asked him if he 
used sugar in his tea. If Sidney had been at Ad- 
miral Marston’s, Mrs. Marston could not have said 
anything much different. 

“ I’m very glad to be here,” said Sidney with 
growing interest in his surroundings. “ Yes, please, 
one small lump.” 

“You will be popular here, Mr. Cushing, if you 
take small lumps of sugar, at the present price of it.” 

Hermosa spoke with a bluntness that seemed pre- 
determined. What was she trying to doF Impress 
as deeply as she could on Sidney the poverty of the 
people he was with, and so widen the gulf between 
him and 

Athanasia’s mother seemed a little embarrassed 
by Hermosa’s remark. But she laughed and simply 
said, “ Of course, sugar is unusually high at present. 
But it’s like everything else. I have no doubt if we 
had to order a warship from the grocer it would 
come high.” 

“ I am sure it would,” said Sidney, laughing. 
“ Warships are expensive luxuries. Very few folks 
can afford to have them on the table.” 

“ Did you ever think,” said Mr. Howard, “ how it 


178 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


happens that sugar suddenly advances a cent or a 
cent and a half a pound, without any apparent rea- 
son? 

“ I am afraid I don’t give it much thought,” said 
Sidney. 

“ The government fined a sugar trust over two 
years ago for cheating on its scales. The sum was 
over a million and a half and the trust has turned 
the amount over to the government. Now, after the 
lapse of a year and a half the trust begins to ad- 
vance the price. Our anti-trust laws are curious 
things. We think perhaps we have curbed a trust 
by finding it guilty and ordering it to pay a fine. 
How easily we fool ourselves! The trust pays the 
fine and then advances the price. Who pays the 
fine in the end? We do. The people. The trust 
is a commercial organization. It deals in a neces- 
sity. Warships are not necessities, but sugar is. 
Oh, how patient the people are ! How they seem to 
love to be fleeced and robbed and fooled! But I 
don’t think they will forever.” 

Sidney sat still in astonishment. The company 
around the table seemed to take Mr. Howard’s re- 
marks as if they were daily used to them, as indeed 
they were. Hermc^a smiled. Athanasia spoke up. 

Forever is a long time, isn’t it, Mr. Howard? ” 

‘^Yes, but there’s lots of it. There is plenty to 
go around.” 

Isn’t it nice to think of a time coming when 
we won’t need either warships or sugar ? ” said Atha- 
nasia with perfect simplicity. 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 179 


don’t need warships now,” said Mr. How- 
ard in his quiet voice. How is it that blind people 
always have quiet voices.? Even in the midst of his 
most earnest talk, Theodore Howard never raised 
the pitch of his voice. Sidney was fascinated as he 
listened to him. 

Has father been arguing with you, Mr. Cushing, 
over the subject of war.? ” Hermosa spoke not apol- 
ogetically but with a trace of wistfulness as she 
looked from Sidney to her father. She was sitting 
beside him, and Sidney noted the look of the 
girl’s eyes as they turned to the figure in the 
wheel chair, and placed a hand for a moment on his 
arm. 

Father is deeply interested in the whole subj ect 
of war and its causes and its equipment and its cost. 
I don’t believe there is a navy in the world that is 
not familiar to him. He has a wonderful memory 
for figures and it has been cultivated by his habit of 
thought. I wonder if you would like to hear father 
recite that poem of Robert Whitaker’s called ^ My 
Country’.? Father, do you remember that.? It 
came up in our study last week of social verses, and 
you thought it was so fine. I don’t agree with it 
at all, but — can you say it, father.? ” 

Hermosa seemed to have something of the pride 
a parent might show in asking a precocious child to 
play or sing something. But the minute she spoke 
of Whitaker’s poem, her father’s face glowed with 
real enthusiasm. 

“ I can remember every word of it. It begins. 


180 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


^ My country is the world ’ Wait, just a mo- 

ment, Hermosa, until I get the rhythm.” 

They all sat silent in the dusk as the blind man 
with his lips moving slightly seemed to be going over 
with himself the different lines. And then he recited, 
clearly, the whole poem. 


MY COUNTRY 


My country is the world ; I count 
No son of man my foe. 

Whether the warm life currents mount 
And mantle blows like snow. 

Or red, or yellow, brown or black. 
The face that into mine looks back. 

My native land is Mother Earth, 
And all men are my kin. 

Whether of rude or gentle birth. 
However steeped in sin ; 

Or rich, or poor, or great, or small, 

I count them brothers, one and all. 

My birthplace is no spot apart, 

I claim no town nor State, 
tove hath a shrine in every heart, 

And whereso’er men mate 
To do the right and say the truth, 
Love evermore renews her youth. 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 181 


Mj flag is the star-spangled sky, 
Woven without a seam, 

^Where dawn and sunset colors lie. 
Fair as an angel’s dream; 

The flag that still, unstained, untorn. 
Floats over all of mortal born. 

My party is all human-kind, 

My platform, brotherhood: 

I count all men of honest mind 
Who work for human good. 

And for the hope that gleams afar. 

My comrades in this holy war. 

My heroes are the great and good 
Of every age and clime. 

Too often mocked, misunderstood. 
And murdered in their time. 

But spite of ignorance and hate, 
Known and exalted soon or late. 

My country is the world ; I scorn 
No lesser love than mine. 

But calmly wait that happy morn 
When all shall own this sign. 

And love of country, as of clan, 

Shall yield to world-wide love of man. 


There was a moment’s pause after the blind man 
ceased. Hermosa was speaking. 


182 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


“ But of course much of it is purely ideal. Men 
must belong to some particular thing. They have 
to belong to a town and a State and a party to do 
things. They must learn to love their own country 
and be true to it before they can learn to love the 
world.” 

I believe all Ihaf, too,” said her father calmly. 
“ Just as I believe every one ought to belong to 
some particular church in order to learn how to 
belong to the Church Universal. At the same time, 
I think the different sects will have to lose their 
sectarianism before the churches can do the greatest 
work for the master. I love my own church, but 
I don’t want that feeling to hinder me in any way 
from loving the Master’s Kingdom more than I love 
my own church.” 

Would you be willing to tell me something more 
about your church.?” Sidney seemed to be asking 
a question of all of them. And he could not help 
noting the look of pleased Interest that leaped into 
their faces on hearing his question. 

Mr. Freeman has been our minister, how long 
is it, Athanasia.? You always know.” 

“ He baptized me,” said Athanasia eagerly. 
‘‘That was twenty years ago. Hermosa was four 
years old at the time.” 

“ Now you know how old we are, Mr. Cushing,” 
said Hermosa, “ if Athanasia will tell you how old 
she was at the christening.” 

“ I was six months,” Athanasia said gravely. 
“ Father held me. Of course, I don’t remember 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 183 


much about it, but I’ve always been glad Mr. Free- 
man baptized me.” 

Yes, Mr. Freeman is a fine man. We all love 
him,” said Mr. Howard. Over twenty years. I 
remember him when he first came to us. He has 
been a great blessing to us all. He has been with 
us in all sorts of trouble and I don’t know what 
we would have done if the church had not given us 
right visions of life.” 

His sermon was helpful this morning,” Sidney 
said thoughtfully. 

They are always helpful,” Hermosa said. He 
says the things we need to hear.” 

You don’t understand, you can’t,” Sidney spoke 
in a low tone, speaking to all of them, but looking 

at Hermosa, how much I would like to 

Hermosa was startled. A glow slowly crept over 
her face. There was a wistfulness about Sidney’s 
manner that appealed deeply to her strong religious 
nature. The little circle about the table was silent 
with sympathetic interest. Sidney went on, with 
much inward hesitation but a pleasant feeling that he 
was with those who understood, after all. 

I would like to belong to a church where it really 
meant as much as it seems to mean to you.” 

It means more than we can tell, Mr. Cushing,” 
Mrs. Ward said. It covers long years of real 
helpfulness.” 

And then tHe talk for some reason drifted off info 
other matters as talk is apt to do, and Sidney did 
not recur to it again until the meal was over and 


1184 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


he had wheeled Mr. Howard into his own room to 
find materials with which to occupy his hands. 
Then when Sidney and Hermosa were alone together 
she said, 

‘‘I let father do all he can for himself even at a 
good deal of trouble to himself. It is good for 
him.’^ 

“Yes. You must tell me how you find time out 
of your working hours to teach him so much.” 

“ In the first place I am unusually well and 
strong.” 

Sidney looked carefully at this girl of the peo- 
ple. And what he saw impressed him then and after- 
wards powerfully. Yes, Hermosa Howard was 
strong. Her face was the face of one who had 
never known physical pain or weariness. 

“Father seems to need very little sleep. Some- 
times I read to him for two hours at a time. He 
has a wonderful capacity for remembering and re- 
taining the main facts.” 

“ My father has the same ability. I have known 
him to carry in his memory the dimensions of all the 
great warships of Great Britain and Germany.” 

Hermosa was startled at Sidney’s mention of his 
father. Then she said, in a low voice, a little hesi- 
tatingly, 

“ May I — do you — may I ask how your father 
is — Is he well? Is it right for me to talk to 
you about him? ” 

You are almost the only person — you and Atha- 
nasia and the rest here, who can — talk with me. It 
is a relief. Yes, he is quite well.” 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 185 


‘‘ Do you — can you — see him often? ” 

“ No, I do not think it is best for either of us.” 

^^Does he — retain any interest in the new ship? ” 

‘‘He seems as deeply interested in it as ever.” 

“ When will it be finished? ” 

“ The work has excelled anything ever known. 
We shall be able to finish, I think, a year in advance 
of the contract. I have never known the men to 
work so intelligently and swiftly. I am going to 
Washington to-morrow to see the naval committee. 
It will be a pleasant surprise to them to hear the 
news. They have been urging haste.” 

“ To Washington? ” 

“Yes.” 

“Will Miss Marston christen the new vessel? ” 

“ I don’t know.” Sidney was astonished. 

“Are any but daughters of admirals allowed to 
christen warships ? ” 

“ The daughter of our yard superintendent chris- 
tened the cruiser V eng eance” 

“ But it is not common? ” 

“No.” 

Silence. 

“ Would you care to christen a warship. Miss 
Howard? ” 

“No, I do not believe in them, any more than 
father does.” 

“ Hermosa ! ” her father called her and she went 
across the hall and soon came back wheeling him 
into the room. 

The rest of the evening Sidney spent with the 
friends in a general visit. 


186 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


When he went away, it was with a mingled feeling 
of pleasure and disappointment. There had been 
times during the evening when it seemed as if Her- 
mosa was on the point of saying something that 
would enlighten him as to her real religious experi- 
ence. And then suddenly the door seemed to shut 
in his face. He asked if he might bring over some 
books to Mr. Howard and his offer was eagerly ac- 
cepted by the blind man. He parted from the com- 
pany with a few cheerful words of thanks on his part 
for the evening’s pleasure and of gratitude for his 
coming on the part of Mrs. Ward and Athanasia. 
And all the way home it was Athanasia’s bright face 
that recurred to him as she had stood in the doorway 
and waved her hand at him. 

“ Poor girl ! How thankful I ought to be that I 
am straight and strong.” 

He went into the lonesome house and sat down in 
the library. The horror of his situation at home 
had grown upon him as the months went by. One of 
the means he had chosen to drive this away was to 
turn on all the lights in the lower part of the 
house, go into the library and read. He had also of 
late begun to write out some of his experiences. It 
was not a diary but rather a running sketch of the 
day’s doings put in the form of imaginary conver- 
sations between himself and an imaginary friend. 
For this friend he had once or twice substituted Pax 
Marston. 

He had been at work on these conversations for 
half an hour and was growing interested in them, 
when the bell rang. 


THE TENEMENT DWELLERS 187 


Angus and the servants had gone up stairs. Sid- 
ney went to the door. 

He opened, and in the light of the porch, there 
stood Ed Marston, the admiral’s nephew. 

‘‘What, Marston! I’m glad to see you. Come 
in!” 

Marston came in without a word, looking sadly 
and wistfully at Sidney. 


CHAPTER Vm 


THE TRIP TO WASHINGTON; THE ADMIRAL AND SID- 
NEY; WHAT OF PAX? BRANDER CUSHING AND THE 
STATE prison; THE BRICKYARD; ANDREW BRODIG, 

anarchist; the chapel service. 

A s soon as Sidney had caught a full look of Ed 
Marston’s face he exclaimed, 

‘‘What’s the matter? Are you ill?” 

“ No.” 

“You don’t look right. Come in here. Sit down 
in that chair. There is no bad news ? ” 

“ It depends. I should call it so if I were in 
your place.” 

“ Talk out, man. Is it Pax ! ” 

“ Yes. Do you know — I believe Pax is dying.” 
“Dying!” 

“ On your account.” 

“ On my account? ” 

“ Maybe I haven’t any business to come in on 
this. But somehow I couldn’t keep out. It’s no 
secret, I guess, that Pax thinks a lot of you.” 

Silence. 

“But since your father, your father ” 

“ Went to the penitentiary for telling the truth,” 
said Sidney bluntly. “You can’t hurt my feelings, 
Marston, I’ve been through too much.” 

188 


WHAT OF PAX? 


189 


Under his breath Marston said, I should say.” 
Then he continued aloud, ‘‘ Well, Pax has not been 
the same girl since that* Old Unc’ Marstqn and 
Aunt Lydia — well, perhaps you know how they feel.” 

What do you mean? ” 

“ Do you want a fellow to put the probe in and 
twist it around?” 

“ I haven’t time to take an anaesthetic,” said Sid- 
ney with a wan smile. 

Well,” muttered Ed, what did I come up here 
for anyhow? ” 

I don’t know. Tell me.” 
think the world of Pax. I can’t bear to see 
her suffer. She — well — I believe that girl is awfully 
in love with you or some one, and Unc’ Marston 
swears that she shall not be the wife of the son of 


«Go on.” 

*^A convict.” 

Silence. 

It’s none of my business, I know, Cushing, bu£ 
I can’t bear to see so much unrequited feeling being 
wasted and I thought maybe you would know what 
to do and so I came up to see you. If you want 
any help to carry her off I’m your man. Only I 
won’t go any foolishness about walking, you know. 
If it’s done, I’ll engage a two-seated rig and we’ll 
go comfortably.” 

Even at that moment of confusion and turmoil 
of mind, Sidney could not help smiling at the careless 
young lieutenant. 


190 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


«What can I do?” 

Storm the fortifications. Shell ’em out. Drop 
some lyddite into Unc’ Marston’s coffee.” 

‘‘ I was planning to go to Washington to-morrow. 
But ” 

“ Good. Pax will be awfully glad to see you.” 

If I call, I shall ask to see the admiral and Mrs. 
Marston before I see Pax.” Sidney spoke very 
gravely and his face was very pale. 

Well, Unc’ Marston thinks a lot of you, I know, 
and Aunt Lyddy took to you the first time she saw 
you. Still, I don’t know. They’re bang up society, 
you know. And the fact of your father being in — 
in — State prison isn’t the best testimonial for you. 
If I were in your place I believe I would make all 
the necessary arrangements with Pax first and see 
Unc’ Marston last. ‘ She’s of age. She passed the 
sixteenth anchor buoy five years ago.” 

Sidney was silent. It is doubtful if he heard all 
Marston was rattling off. The whole thing raised 
questions in his mind that confused and troubled 
him. Even Marston, careless-minded as he was, saw 
it, and had the sense to say little more. Only he 
came over nearer Sidney and said with boyish frank- 
ness and good will, 

“ Cushing, whatever you do I know will be just 
right. And if Pax is yours with her father’s and 
mother’s consent, why, no one will be gladder than 
I. Why, we’ll be cousins then, won’t we? And I’ll 
have to call you ^ Sid.’ ” 

‘‘ You may now.” 


WHAT OF PAX? 


191 


“ No. You’re too old for me. But you don’t 
blame me for coming up, do you? ” 

‘‘No, I appreciate it.” 

“Will you go to Washington anyway? ” 

“Yes. The business on the Columbia requires 
it.” 

“You can tell what to do when you get there?” 
“ Yes. The admiral is in Washington? ” 

“ Yes. He sails for the Isthmus next week to 
make some inspection. Lucky you can find him this 
week. He’s always at home evenings unless there’s 
some function and it’s a quiet time in Washington 
just now.” 

Sidney insisted on Marston’s staying with him 
over night and the next morning they took the first 
express to Washington together. 

On the way down Sidney let Marston rattle on at 
random. He was silent himself. Many questions 
kept rising up before him. What were his real feel- 
ings towards Pax Marston ? Did he really and truly 
love her, or was his emotion, whenever he thought of 
her, one of passing interest in an unknown person- 
ality? He had met her three times. He had talked 
with her on a small range of topics. He did not 
know her real character, her aims, her real ambi- 
tions, her tastes, her habits, her religious ideas or 
her friendships. And even if he met all this with 
the assertion that he did love her enough to risk all 
to ask her to be his wife, what happiness or peace 
could he offer her if it was all to be won at the risk 
of a breach with her own family? And added to 


192 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


it all the tragic fact that she would marry a man 
whose father had been found guilty of breaking a 
law and was now serving time in a penitentiary. As 
he neared Washington, however, the memory of Pax 
Marston’s vivacious face quickened. Once he in- 
terrupted Marston, venturing to ask. 

Did you say she v/as much changed ” 

Pax? Well, you know a girl can’t cry 
every day without washing the color off her com- 
plexion some. But her eyes look brighter for so 
much moisture. She Is so handsome you couldn’t 
spoil her looks in a hurry. She’ll look good to you 
all right.” 

When they parted at Sidney’s hotel, Marston 
wrung Sidney’s hand fervently. 

If you need a taxi or a preacher or anything 
in a hurry call me up. I’m at the club on H Street. 
I’ll stay in all day and night ready to slip my cable 
when I get your sealed orders.” 

Sidney smiled, promised to avail himself of Mars- 
ton’s services if he needed them and spent the rest 
of the day at the business that the Columbia de- 
manded. 

Marston^ called Sidney up just after dinner to 
tell him that Unc’ Marston would be at home that 
night. 

‘^You had better call without telling him you’re 
coming,” Ed’s cheery voice rattled through the tele- 
phone. I have an idea the admiral might retreat 
if he knew you were going to storm his works. If 
you see Pax tell her I’ll be best man on short notice.” 


WHAT OF PAX? 


193 


At eight o’clock Sidney stood at Admiral Mars- 
ton’s door, his heart beating with more nervous ex- 
pectation than he had ever known at a critical ath- 
letic contest where he knew his university was de- 
pending on him for prize honors. 

He told the servant he wanted to see Admiral 
Marston. It seemed to him he waited an unusually 
long time before the admiral appeared. 

At last he came out of his little office room at the 
end of the drawing-room. Sidney walked slowly 
forward to meet him. At first Sidney thought the 
admiral was not going to shake hands. But he did 
finally put out his hand and said as he did so, 

I — I — this is an unexpected pleasure, Mr. Cush- 
ing. Will you — come in here?” 

He motioned with evident embarrassment towards 
his little office and Sidney went in and took the chair 
the admiral motioned him to take. Marston shut 
the door carefully and sat down at his table. 

Sidney’s nervousness had all passed, and he was 
fully self-possessed. The admiral’s hesitation and 
uneasiness seemed to grow. 

I’m glad to see you,” he stammered. 

Are you really. Admiral Marston ? ” 

Of course. Things have changed — a good 
many things have happened since — since you were 
here last.” 

“ Yes, a good many. May I venture to ask how 
is Mrs. Marston? ” 

She is well, I believe.’’ 

And — Miss Marston? ” 


194 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


“ She has not been very well this winter.” 

Silence. 

Then Sidney said, speaking slowly and with great 
care, 

‘‘ Admiral Marston, I want to be perfectly frank 
with you. I have come to see Mrs. Marston and 
yourself about your daughter and get your consent 
to — to — meet her and ” 

Admiral Marston’s voice broke in harshly, 

“ Mr. Cushing, do you mean to say you love my 
daughter after the very brief acquaintance you have 
formed ” 

Over Sidney’s whole nature it seemed to him at 
that moment that his hunger for human affection 
flowed. There was a small photograph of Pax on 
her father’s desk. It brought to poor Sidney’s im- 
agination the picture of her as she stood on the 
platform ready to christen the warship. Again he 
saw the little bow of ribbons as it floated over the 
river. Again he saw the streamer of color that the 
breeze that afternoon on the Potomac wafted to him 
from where she sat. And he answered with an im- 
pulsive, whole-hearted, positive feeling that had not 
been with him when he entered the house: 

Yes, Admiral Marston, I do. I love her.” 

I am deeply grieved, Mr. Cushing. To save you 
any suspense, I will say at once, the thing is impos- 
sible. It is out of the question for me or Mrs. Mars- 
ton to give our consent to anything of the sort.” 

‘‘ Do you mean that it is because my father is in 
the State prison ” 


WHAT OF PAX? 


195 


Since you are so direct, that is what I mean.” 

“ What has my father’s condition to do with ” 

Pardon me, Mr. Cushing, I will not argue. It 
can do no good. I believe you will see the matter 
as we do. Pax’s happiness cannot be wrecked by 
an emotion. She does not know her own mind.” 

“ Might I see Mrs. Marston and talk with her? ” 

The admiral hesitated curiously. 

‘‘ She is not here.” 

Might I see Pax with you, and ” 

She is not here.” 

Could I see them at any time ? ” 

They are not in the city.” 

Not in the city? ” 

To be frank with you, Mr. Cushing, my wife 
and daughter sailed this morning for Europe.” 

Europe ! ” 

By this time they are somewhere out near Point 
Judith. Listen to me, Mr. Cushing. When I 
learned that my nephew had gone up to Dockville 
to see you, I had a suspicion that you might come 
here. Mrs. Marston shares with me my anxiety 
about Pax. She is our only child. It is no secret, 
though it is a painful fact, that she has allowed her- 
self to fall into a feeling for you which, in the 
nature of the case, her mother and I have felt would 
in the end lead to great misery and wretchedness for 
you both. We decided to send her abroad. I can- 
not express to you how exceedingly painful all this 
experience has been for us all.” 

Sidney sat still. What could he say? WhaB 


196 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


could he do? The room whirled around him. The 
last things seemed to be slipping out from under 
him. He was sitting near enough to the end of the 
admiral’s table so that his arm was resting on it. 
Suddenly he flung his other arm down, laid his 
head on them and gave expression to a muffled cry 
of pain that made Admiral Marston wince. 

‘‘ Come, come, my boy. You’re taking this hard. 
I regret the necessity for our action. It seems the 
only thing possible.” 

Sidney lifted up his head. Slowly he sat back 
straight and proud. 

“In other words, you are a judge of others’ hap- 
piness on your own standard. You visit the sins of 
a father on a son and daughter. Are you God to 
do a thing like that? ” 

“ I have done what seemed best,” said the admiral 
stiffly. “ I have no apologies. Personally I have 
no objection to you. If — if — your father had not — 
But there is no use to discuss it. The whole thing 
so far as you and our daughter is in question is im- 
possible and I will say that nothing can ever change 
Mrs. Marston’s mind or mine.” 

Sidney stood up. He looked very tall and 
straight. He bowed. 

“ Good evening. Admiral Marston,” he said, and 
walked directly out of the room and out of the 
house. 

He never knew whether Admiral Marston ever 
made any attempt to call him back or not. He was 
too much disturbed and for the time too much an- 


WHAT OF PAX? 


197 


gered to notice. For the action of the admiral and 
his wife had seemed to him like the grossest injus- 
tice. He hotly went over the interview and bit- 
terly commented on the fact that to society in gen- 
eral, that is, to the society in which he had so far 
moved, the fact of his father’s disgrace threw over 
the son as well the black cloud of distrust and the 
shrinking of those who drew their skirts about them 
to escape contact and pollution. 

After he had gone to his room in the hotel he 
brooded for an uncounted time. It seemed to him 
that life was a wretched thing throughout and that 
he was an outcast and hopeless. For a moment also 
he felt a resentment against Pax herself. Why had 
the girl, if she really cared for him, allowed even 
her mother to take her away? She might have — 
Then he reproached himself for blaming her and sat 
wretchedly going over all the hopelessness of it, when 
the telephone rang. 

It was Ed Marston’s voice. 

I’ve been anxious to know how you came on and 
olF. Did Unc’ Marston silence your turret guns, or 
did you torpedo him before he got within range? ” 
Mrs. Marston and Pax sailed for Europe this 
morning.” 

The silence was so much longer after this an- 
nouncement than the usual pause which Marston’s 
conversational habits allowed that Sidney did not 
know what he was doing. Then 

« \Yell — that beats me. Shall we capture one of 
Unc’ Marston’s cruisers and go after them? ” 


198 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Silence on Sidney’s part. 

“ I’ll tell you what you can do, Cushing. Pro- 
pose by wireless. A fellow in New York did that 
the other day because he couldn’t wait. The girl 
was coming home from a summer vacation and he 
was afraid another young man in the same tours 
company with her would get ahead of him. If you 
say so, I’ll get the wire right off.” 

‘‘No,. Marston, my good fellow, you can’t help 
me in any way that I know. I’m not fit to talk 
now about it.” 

“I’m an ass. Kick me at your end of the line, 
will you? I want to see you to-morrow if I may. 
Good-night.” 

He hung up before Sidney could say that he would 
be glad to see him, and Sidney went to bed to pass 
a sleepless night. 

In the morning he reviewed the situation from all 
sides. It looked as hopeless as ever. Marston 
came over to the hotel and offered sincere sympathy, 
his usual flippant, reckless manner so subdued that 
Sidney was touched deeply by it. 

The business he had come for occupied him for 
the next two days, but by the end of the week he 
was back in Dockville. 

The only thing left for him that promised any 
mental relief was the building. Into this he now 
plunged with a fierceness and at times bitterness that 
threatened to change in many ways his usual noble 
and high-spirited courage. 

At this time in his strange career Sidney Cush- 


WHAT OF PAX? 


199 


ing had, besides the finishing of the battleship, two 
factors determining his future. He did not at the 
time understand all the significance of these factors. 
They were Hermosa Howard and his own father. 

Two weeks after his return from Washington 
he had carried th% books to Mr. Howard and had 
an interesting talk with the blind man. At that 
time he learned through him a little more of Her- 
mosa’s character and purpose. He had called again 
with more material from the shipyard office, plans, 
diagrams and sketches in which Mr. Howard was 
interested and one or two models which he could feel 
with his sensitive seeing fingers. At that time Her- 
mosa was present and what she said added to Sid- 
ney’s growing interest in her. But it was simply an! 
interest that touched his feeling of respect for her 
and raised a few questions in his mind. 

With his father, the influence that at this critical 
period kept him from going to pieces entirely was 
the passionate desire to fulfil to the letter Brander 
Cushing’s ambition to give the United States the 
most perfect fighting machine the world had ever 
known. That passion had grown with the son, as 
the time went by and the ship began to near com- 
pletion. And when, several weeks later, he went 
up to the penitentiary to see his father on one of the 
few visits he had allowed himself to make, he carried 
with him papers, plans and photographs to show 
his father how the work was coming on. 

What of Brander Cushing during this period of 
death in life for him?’ 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


WO 

When he entered the place, he had been assigned 
for his daily task the keeping of office records. This 
was supposed to be work suited to his ability and 
choice on account of his distinguished character and 
talents. 

But one day after he had been in the prison two 
months and its clocklike routine had begun to en- 
velop him in its daily monotony, he asked to see 
the warden on a special matter. The warden was 
a man of unusual ability and of deep and real Chris- 
tian character. He had been appointed to the posi- 
tion by the earnest work of a group of churches 
which had influence with the State governor. He 
had known Brander Cushing before his conviction 
and had a great interest in him. When Cushing 
asked to see him he had him brought into his private 
office where he had frequent conference with the 
prisoners. When the door was closed, the following 
remarkable conversation took place : 

Mr. Armstrong, I have not made a request of 
any sort since I came here. May I make one now.^ ” 

Certainly ; and if it is possible we will grant it.” 

I should like to do some work outside of the 
office.” 

The warden hesitated. 

“ There is no outside work just at present except 
the brickyard, owing to the refitting of machinery 
elsewhere.” 

“ Put me into the brickyard, then.” 

« You.?” 

Yes. Am I not flesh and blood like other men? 


WHAT OF PAX? 


201 


The office work is killing me. I need hard physical 
labor to keep me in good condition.” 

‘‘ Of course you can be assigned to the brickyard. 
But — will you take charge of the foreman’s over- 
sight ? ” 

No. Put me to hauling clay and molding. I 
want to work with my arms and legs. I don’t want 
to bother with my mind. I want to work so I can 
sleep.” 

The warden looked at him compassionately. He 
could see the regular signs of prison hardening in 
Brander Cushing’s face. He wanted to do or say 
something to let Cushing know that in all the world, 
even in those prison walls, there was one man who 
cared for his soul. He ventured to say. 

My brother, will you, without my mentioning if: 
again, as long as you are here, regard me as a friend 
instead of a jailor? ” 

Over Brander Cushing’s pale face a grea£ HusE 
of color swept. Then his face grew hard. Lines 
around his mouth stiffened. His fingers clutched 
the arms of the chair tighter. The warden never 
ceased to look at him clear-eyed and manful. But 
Brander Cushing made no response, and the guard 
came in at Armstrong’s summons. Cushing went 
away without another word. 

Next day he was out in the brickyard working 
with a gang of the roughest men in the prison. 

The nature of this work required a special heavy 
suit. This was soon plastered with wet clay. His 
nearest friend would, not have recognized Brander 


S02 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Cushing after he had been in the brickyard two 
hours. He worked with tremendous energy. It 
seemed as if devils were lashing him. But one re- 
sult of it was sleep. After the first stiffness was 
gone, he anticipated day by day the exhausting na- 
ture of the task. lie had no acquaintance and 
sought none. The only time he ever met the other 
prisoners was at meal time and at the chapel service 
on Sunday. At these times the rule of silence was 
observed. Brander Cushing would have observed 
it anyway. He did not want to speak to any one. 
He would not have spoken if leave had been 
granted. 

What was passing in this remarkable man's soul 
during these days of physical toil as a number in- 
stead of a human? 

It is, of course, well understood that, for a man 
in his position, even after he had acknowledged his 
guilt in open court, he might have used every device 
known to the law, aided by unlimited means, to delay 
his imprisonment. But as has already been said, 
once he had determined to make the sacrifice for 
Sidney’s sake, it seemed as if he were hurried by no 
choice of his own along the track he had followed. 
The business men and acquaintances who had known 
him were simply dumbfounded when Brander Cush- 
ing apparently submitted to go to prison without a 
fight. They did not understand the man. He had 
the foresight to see as well as his shrewd lawyers 
that no higher court would reverse the district 
court’s decision, but there were other things entering 


WHAT OF PAX? 


ws 

into it all that determined his course and led him 
to do as he did. 

Two passions survived all the personal horror of 
his disgrace. One was his love for Sidney. The 
fact that he had saved the boy’s honor was a glowing 
fact which his soul gloated over. As he threw the 
wet clay into the box, filled it, and piled it up, then 
took hold of the handles on his end while another 
prisoner carried the other, his proud spirit never 
ceased to picture Sidney as clean and pure out in the 
free world from which he himself was shut in, and 
the thought sustained him as if a lost soul in hell 
should claim credit for committing some crime to 
save a weaker one. 

The other passion that still survived was his ambi- 
tion for the new warship. After all it was his war- 
ship, the child of his own brain, the creation of his 
own genius. He had even been allowed to send out 
instructions to McLeish and Merrill that had been 
necessary when questions had arisen as to construc- 
tion of parts that were beyond the skill of any one 
but himself. When the vessel was finished it would 
be his own. He had visions of its action in a real 
war. He prayed that a war might come so that the 
ship might be tested. He daily rejoiced in the 
thought that his own son was as deeply interested in 
the whole thing as himself. 

There was added to all else, in Brander Cushing, 
an iron will not to go down in darkness. He said 
to himself, I am coming out of here to resume my 
place among men and compel them to give me my 


204 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


old place again, I will not break down nor let them 
ruin me. I will take care of my body and mind. 
The world shall not break me even here.” He was 
as pround as Lucifer. He shook his fist at society, 
the world and God, 

He read constantly during every moment allowed 
by the strict prison rules. And he received permis- 
sion from the warden to let Sidney bring to him all 
the newest volumes on the science of war and the new- 
est data concerning the armies and navies of the Old. 
World. 

This then was the mental condition of Brander 
Cushing when Sidney next visited him, a few weeks 
after the visit to Washington. They were allowed 
freedom to talk together with no guards pres- 
ent. 

At once Brander Cushing noticed the marks of 
unhappiness on Sidney’s face. Do all he would he 
could not conceal what had been left there by his 
recent experience. 

‘‘You are in hell on my account. Can I do any- 
thing? Of course not.” 

“Father! Father! Don’t. It kills me to have 
you speak so.” 

“Is it Miss Marston? I see. I see. Those 
fools that call themselves civilized would shut you 
out because of me. Sidney, I vow to God I will 
come out of here and make Admiral Marston and 
his wife apologize on their knees to me — yes, to me — • 
for this treatment. I have influence, even here in 
this devil’s cage, to bring to bear on him and his^ 


WHAT OF PAX? 


205 


I tell you, if you want to marry Admiral Marston’s 
daughter, you shall.” 

‘‘Father, it is not — you do not know all. Miss 
Marston and her mother are abroad, I do not know 
where. I do not know when they will return. It 
is all uncertain. For all the world, father, do not 
add to your trouble by worrying over me.” 

“I will not worry. I will act, when I leave this 
place. Sidney, do you not know I am ready to go 
through torment every day for you? ” 

“ I know it too well. What can I do all my life 
to show it? ” 

“ Fill out my ambition, boy. I know your heart 
is in this ship, as mine is. I don’t hesitate to pray 
for war. Real war. There is no telling when we 
may get one. The nations are arming for some 
great conflict. When it comes it will be the greatest 
in history. And when it comes there will be no 
dreadnought can stand against ours, against yours 
and mine, Sid.” 

Used as he was to his father’s former complete 
abandonment to his life work, Sidney almost shud- 
dered at the blunt expression of the war mania in 
his father. But he responded as he had always done 
to his father’s boundless enthusiasm over the sub- 
ject, and when he was back again at Dockville he 
plunged heart and soul into the work over the new 
ship and took great pride every day as he watched 
its black and frowning strength, symbol of man’s 
savagery and brute force even two thousand years 
after the advent of the Prince of Peace. 


206 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Four months went by. Brander Cushing still 
worked in the brickyard. 

One day he noticed as he started to pick up his 
clay box handles that a new prisoner was on the 
other end. His face was so dirty and disfigured 
that he could not have recognized him if he had 
been familiar. 

But when the men washed up in the brickyard 
wash-house at noon, Brander Cushing found this 
same man was next to him at the wash-bowls. When 
he wiped his face, Brander Cushing stared and could 
not refrain from an exclamation. But the men 
outside were permitted to talk a little. 

Andrew Brodig ! ” 

The man stared back at Cushing. 

‘‘Yes. And you?” 

“I? I am an enemy of the people. Do you re- 
member having a little tussle with me in Dockville 
once? ” 

“Yes, yes. And you are here now?” 

“Yes. And you?” 

“And I.” 

That was all they said. Cushing was annoyed 
at dinner time to find this man sitting next to him. 
He ignored him as if he were not there. Andrew 
Brodig had evidently been blown up by something. 
His right eye was gone and there was a great un- 
healed scar running over his face from his left cheek 
to his chin. 

At chapel service on the following Sunday Cush- 
ing was annoyed again to find Andrew Brodig seated 


WHAT OF PAX? 


jeo7 

next to him. He did not want to have anything to 
do with him and resented the man’s presence. He 
reminded him of things he wanted to forget. 

Next day out in the brickyard Andrew Brodig 
started to speak. 

I don’t want to hear you,” Brander Cushing said 
roughly. ‘^Take hold of your handles and move 
along.” 

Andrew Brodig looked venomoudy at Cushing, but 
did as he was told and throughout the week they 
worked together, this strange pair, as far apart 
physically as a clay-box, as far apart mentally and 
spiritually as the ends of the earth. 

On Sunday there was a new face in the pulpit be- 
side the prison chaplain. He was introduced later 
as the Rev. Rufus Freeman of Dockville. Warden 
Armstrong invited in on special Sundays of the year 
preachers from outside, men who, he knew, had a 
real message for men. 

When Freeman began to speak Cushing prepared 
to listen, as he had listened to all the chapel speak- 
ers, with a cold sneer and a hardening heart. 

But half way through Freeman’s talk a sentence 
arrested him. What was that? How did Freeman, 
this hired priest, this canting hypocrite, know that 
about him, Brander Cushing? He found himself 
listening with a real resolve to follow the speaker’s 
thought. The significance of that moment, which 
was to have such stupendous bearing on his whole 
being, did not for an instant suggest itself to him. 
He had turned his head slightly to get a better look 


^08 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


at the speaker, and in doing so he noted Andrew 
Brodig’s face. Over him also had come a look of 
startled surprise at something, and he was leaning 
forward, following the preacher’s words with the 
greatest intentness of feeling;. 


CHAPTER IX 


A liETTER FROM PAX ; ITS EFFECT ON SIDNEY ; MUSING 

OVER hermosa; an evening at the tenement; 

HERMOSA AND THE CHURCH; HER DEFENCE; SID- 
NEY’S questions ; alone in the library. 

I T was Saturday night and Sidney sat alone in the 
library of the big empty house. The mail had 
been late that afternoon, owing to a fire at the post 
office, and Angus had only just brought in some let- 
ters and laid them on the table. 

“ Is there anything you want, Mr. Sidney ? ” 
^‘No, Angus, thank you. jYou may go out for 
the evening if you like.” 

The servant went away and Sidney picked up the 
letters to look them over carelessly. He was very 
tired after the hardest* week’s work he had ever 
known. As he slipped the envelopes slowly through 
his fingers one with a foreign postmark arrested his 
attention. 

He started at the sight of the handwriting, let the 
other letters fall, opened the envelope and with trem- 
bling fingers took out the letter. A faint perfume 
of wood violets softly breathed through the room. 

The letter was dated at Balholm, on the Sogne 
Fiord in Norway. 


209 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


glO 

“ Dear Friend : I am breaking all the conven- 
tions of the society into which we have both been 
born, but I must do something or lose my own self- 
respect even more than I am now in danger of doing 
by writing this letter to you. My father has writ- 
ten my mother and me of your visit to Washington 
and its result. This will perhaps help you to for- 
give the seeming boldness of this which I am doing 
and explain to you in part my leaving home without 
a word of farewell. If I had surely known that you 
cared — ^but how can a woman know surely? I 
thought I knew — ^but — even now I cannot be sure 
that father told all that you said, or fully gave to 
mother the exact words. But it seems so cruel — all 
that has occurred. And my heart is heavy for your 
great and bewildering trouble — your father. May 
I be allowed to mention him? What a sacrifice! 
How it shames poor me, who have never known what 
it means to endure a real grief of that sort. 

I am sitting in the little forward room of a cot- 
tage hotel at the head of this beautiful Balholm Bay. 
The mountains come down so close that the town 
has only one main street that is level. The farmers 
are rowing their little loads of hay across the water 
in their skiffs and carrying it ashore in their arms. 
The men and the women seem happy together. 
There is a great tourist vessel at the dock and a 
small cruiser a little farther out, besides a flock of 
pleasure yachts which have come in here from Gud- 
vangen. The little boys and girls knock at our 
door every morning with baskets of the most beauti- 


HER DEFENCE 


211 


ful strawberries at a ridiculously low price, and 
sometimes they carry delicately carved tinas and the 
curiously whittled chains with the bride spoons made 
in Nordanger. And the quaint costumes of the 
women in the hay fields hanging the wisps of hay 
on the fences, the little two-wheel carts, the neat and 
fresh-faced girls in the dining-room, the absence of 
all worry and money-making on the part of the men 
one sees — all these things, together with a most deli- 
cious color in a Norwegian sky and clear blue and 
white in its glacier water, combine to make one happy 

at heart if the heart could forget, forget 

remember you said once in what seems to me 
years ago that you had been brought up from child- 
hood to obey your father implicitly. The same is 
true of me also. I have never for a moment thought 
of doing anything contrary to my parents’ wishes. 
My father has been all his life accustomed to issue 
orders and to have them obeyed. So when he or- 
dered my mother and me to leave home so suddenly, 
I had no thought of resistance. I should, perhaps, 
have said or done something — do you blame me for 
going? Besides, what hope — but I am again feeling 
that my understanding of all is not fully what it 
ought to be. Do not — you will not, will you? — do 
not think me over bold and lacking in all true 
womanly feeling, but I am sure your eyes did spealc 
to me that day before you went back home, before 
your father 

‘‘I do not know how long we shall be goiie, or 
what our next address will be. My mother does not 


212 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


take me into her confidence as to our future plans. 
I know nothing about them. 

“ If you should write me you can address to the 
care of Bennett’s in Bergen. There is one reason 
I am writing, about which I am more certain than 
anything else. I want you to know that the horror 
which has come to your life has not changed my 
friendship for you. My heart is filled with over- 
whelming pity as I think of the strange thing which 
has come to pass with you. May I therefore sign 
myself as your sincere and faithful friend, 

“ Pax Marston.” 

For a very long time Sidney sat there pondering 
over this letter from the daughter of the admiral. 

When somewhere in the house he heard and 
counted mechanically a clock strike eleven, he was 
still sitting in the same place re-reading the letter 
and going over certain phrases in it. . 

What was the matter with him.? Why did his 
heart feel so strangely dissatisfied.? Was he criti- 
cizing the girl because she had not written, in so 
many words, ‘‘I love you”.? How could he expect 
that.? On the other hand was he criticizing her 
because she had written even all she had.? What 
more or what less could she have done.? Would he 
answer the letter.? If so, what would he say.? Did 
he truly love her as he had told the admiral he did.? 
And if so, and she also loved him, what hope of hap- 
piness with Admiral Marston and his wife bitterly 
and irrevocably opposed to their daughter marrying 


HER DEFENCE 


213 


the son of a convict? And could he ever ask her to 
break all those strict rules of society and of family 
prejudice which were a part of her very being? 
What happiness could ever flow out of such a de- 
parture from custom and social standing and above 
all of consent on the part of the family? It was too 
great a risk, it involved too many people. 

Should he write to her, and if so, what could he 
say? Again the question tortured him, did he really 
love her enough to break with all conventions, ask 
her to break all the filial ties of her home, deliber- 
ately disobey her father and mother and run the 
fearful risk of losing out of her life all the things 
which are held so dear by all those to whom society 
and its regulations mean the very life itself? 

Anyway he could compel himself to look at the 
question he was confronted with difficulty. And 
after unavailing tossing of it all back and forth 
almost the only conclusion he could reach was that 
in spite of his position, in spite of the disgrace which 
he shared with his father, she had not allowed that 
to influence her friendship; was that the strongest 
word she had written? Yes, friendship. At least, 
she was not like some of the friends so-called who had 
known Brander Cushing before he went to prison; 
she at least had not permitted that horror to warp 
her feeling or prevent Sidney from establishing some 
sort of understanding that might grow into a love 
so great that all other ties, even those of the family, 
might be broken and thrown away. 

The next day was Sunday. He had been to hear 


214 } 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Mr. Freeman twice since that first time. The reli- 
gious unrest that beset him was as deep as ever. 
During ^11 this upheaval of his mind and heart he 
had passionately longed to find a spiritual peace 
which he knew some people really possessed. And 
— he could not escape the fact — every time he 
thought of his own religious longings, Hermosa 
Howard occurred to him. There was something 
about the girl unlike other girls he had known. He 
tried to think it was perhaps her unusual bodily 
health and strength. He recalled how on that after- 
noon of the fire she had obeyed his shout when he 
called across the swirling smoke, “ Push your end of 
the board there ! It’s slipping off here ! ” Again 
he could feel the board move under his foot. Again 
he realized as he had at the time the. fact that over 
there in that blood-red room where hell was raging, 
one girl had kept her senses, as calm and collected 
and resourceful as if she had simply gone to the win- 
dow to open it for fresh air. And he recalled his 
own thought as he stood there agonizing to reach 
out farther and grasp the arm of a girl who had 
fallen off the board — “ Brave lass ! Oh, she is 
brave ! ” 

But when he mused over it, there was something 
more than physical courage in this girl of the people. 
It was spiritual. It touched heights of religious 
faith to which he was a stranger. And he was hun- 
gering for the same p6ssesslon. The trial that had 
come to him had left him stranded on a stretch of 
undefined territory. He did not doubt or question 


HER DEFENCE 


215 


the existence of God. But aside from that he found 
no comfort in religion, no peace of mind, no ecstasy 
or enthusiasm. His father had taught him great 
ethical truths which had kept him straight and clean 
morally. But when it came to deep or high acquain- 
tance with a heavenly Father he was as ignorant as 
a child. And it must also be said that he had never 
known any personal feeling for Christ as a Redeemer 
or a Friend and Comforter. In other words, a per- 
sonal Christian faith was absolutely unknown to 
him. He had never experienced it, and he longed to 
know what it meant, with a desire that grew upon 
him and expressed itself in his very face, which re- 
vealed more and more his longing and his heart hun- 
ger. His countenance had grown to have a wistful 
expression, a search for an unrealized hope, for a 
goal of peace which the wings of his soul had never 
been able so far to attain. 

It is not strange, therefore, that he had gone to 
hear Mr. Freeman again, and finding that something 
“about his preaching began to touch his aspiration, 
he went this Sunday after Pax Marston’s letter had 
come. It is not strange, either, that yielding to a 
vague questioning about Hermosa Howard’s reli- 
gious life he should again accept Mrs. Ward’s sim- 
ple invitation to come and take tea with them that 
evening. 

Again, as before, Hermosa and her father were 
guests at the Wards’ table. Again, as that first time, 
Sidney was touched by the simple words of grace 
spoken at the table, and again he almost eagerly led 


216 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


the talk himself up to the question of the churcH 
and asked the privilege of putting questions. Every 
moment his astonishment grew as he listened to the 
answers Hermosa gave. For as if almost by mutual 
consent, after a little, nearly all the conversation 
was confined to these two, not by any formal agree- 
ment but as if it were natural and to be expected. 
As it went on, Sidney almost forgot that any one 
else was present except Hermosa and himself. 

“ Then, does the church to which you belong sat- 
isfy your heart and mind? I cannot understand it.” 

It is not only the local church that appeals to 
us. It is the church of all history, the church of 
all time that has been in the world. We also 
remember that, whenever y^e think of our own 
church.” 

‘‘But has not the churcH of history been very 
often wrong and has it not done some very wicked 
and foolish things?” 

“Yes. Because it has been made up of common 
men and women. But the good the church has done 
has been infinitely more than the harm. Do you 
know any institutions of our modern life that are 
to-day doing greater goocj that have sprung into 
existence without having been inspired or started 
by the teaching of Christianity in the church ? ” 

Sidney tried to think of some, but was not able. 
His mind was absolutely honest always. He was un- 
familiar with quibbles and sophistry. 

“ It would be interesting to hear your list of the 
things in the world which have helped it upward and 


HER DEFENCE 


217 


forward and have, as you believe, come into exist- 
ence through the efforts or inspiration of the church 
of history.” 

“ Let me name them, Hermosa,” broke in her 
father. ‘‘ Let me give Mr. Cushing a list. You 
know we have just been over the social outline of 
‘ Christianity as a Source of World Progress.’ ” 

“ Well, father,” Hermosa smiled, if you miss any 
I will try to remember them.” 

Sidney will not soon forget how the blind man 
eagerly checked off each item on his fingers, speak- 
ing with a certain glow on his face that was like a 
clear light shining through the skin. 

‘‘I think first mention should be of the Brother- 
hood Idea which the church started. It was abso- 
lutely unknown before then. Let me go over the list 
without explanation: 

“ The abolition of slavery ; the emancipation of 
woman; the value put on childhood; the education 
of the masses ; the evolution of republics ; the move- 
ment against intoxicating drink ; the organization of 
missionary societies; the organization of Young 
Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations; 
the rise of young people’s societies; the organiza- 
tion of social centers to fight disease; the establish- 
ment of hospitals and asylums for sick and depend- 
ent people by the State ; the use of co-operative insti- 
tutions in business; trade-unions; organizations to 
educate the people against war; Sunday Schools; 
Bible study classes ; the printing press ; reform asso- 
ciations to produce a cleaner dramatic life ; the gath- 


218 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


erlng of the people in mass conventions to discuss 
great questions of common interest.” 

“ I don’t agree with you about trade-unions,” said 
Sidney with unusual spirit. ‘‘Do you mean to say 
you consider them the offspring of Christian teach- 
ing? ” 

“ That is because you are a capitalist. I don’t 
excuse the shortcomings of trade unionism, but it 
should be regarded as a whole. On the whole I be- 
lieve it has benefited the world of labor and of capital 
as well.” 

“But take this very tenement in which you are 
now living, this double-decker. It is a product of a 
Christian age. And in many ways you must know, 
far better than I do, what a miserable thing this 
is to house human beings. Forgive me, Mrs. Ward. 
Your rooms are as neat as wax. But you know how 
inconvenient the whole tenement is. What has the 
church done all these years to improve such condi- 
tions ? ” 

Hermosa’s check glowed with a deep red spot. It 
was the first time Sidney had ever seen her angry. 

“ Is the church to blame for all the bad things in 
the world? Then you can blame Christ for not be- 
ing able to convert the Scribes and Pharisees. 
Everybody nowadays takes an easy fling at the 
church whenever anything goes wrong in society. 
In a recent muckraking magazine a writer who never 
belonged to a church in his life and never spent an 
hour on any real problem to solve it personally, 
blames the church for everything he sees that is 


HER DEFENCE 


219 


vile and unjust. Was the father of the prodigal 
son to blame for his son’s riotous living? I am an- 
gry, Mr. Cushing, every time I hear people blaming 
the church for not doing everything. Has the busi- 
ness world no duties? Has the home no obligations? 
Has the press no divine law as well as the pulpit com- 
pelling it to do all it can to make a better world? 
Who or what keeps up the war spirit of the world 
in spite of the church of the living God? Is it not 
the manufacturer of warships and explosives and 
armor? Is the church to blame for all that? Is it 
to be scored for not creating miracles when even 
Christ had to say of the people, ^ They will not 
come unto me that they might have eternal life ’ ? 
The church has borne all through the ages the bur- 
den of a criticism that I believe is wickedly unjust. 
It should be judged by the unparalleled achieve- 
ments it has wrought for human advancement, not 
by the miserable stumbling-blocks which man’s own 
selfish and hateful resistance has thrown in its way.” 

Hermosa forgot herself as she spoke. She had 
risen from the table and her tall, vigorous figure, 
her outstretched arm, her clear, deep voice appealed 
to Sidney with a new and thrilling experience. What 
a splendid creature she was, this girl, this woman of 
the people! What a picture or statue she would 
make if she could now be depicted on canvas or In 
marble by some great artist! He must have shown 
something of his feeling to Hermosa as he sat oppo- 
site her at the table, for after a moment of pause as 
she stood there, she colored deeply, looked around 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


220 

at the little circle of silent forms and sat down 
quickly. 

“Isn’t Hermosa fine when she gets mad?” said 
Athanasia simply. 

“ Athanasia, hush!” Hermosa said in a low tone, 
putting her hand on the crippled girl’s arm. 

“ But you are, you know. You never look so fine 
as when you are really and truly angry. Don’t you 
think so, Mr. Cushing? ” 

Sidney smiled. Hermosa blushed deeply and tried 
to laugh. But she was not able to conceal her em- 
barrassment. 

“ Miss Howard hit the manufacturers of war ma- 
terial pretty hard. Of whom I am one.” 

“ I wasn’t thinking of you,” said Hermosa, look- 
ing down. 

“ I know you weren’t. It was the thing itself. 
Are we to blame for making warships or is the gov- 
ernment to blame for the warships? We simply 
make what the United States asks for. Do we create 
the demand for warships?” 

“ I wish you were making something else,” said 
Hermosa sadly. 

“But that does not answer my question. Am I 
to blame for making warships or is the government, 
the congress, the people, that orders them built? ” 

“ You are both to blame. There should be neither 
demand nor supply for such murder machines.” 

Hermosa spoke as bluntly as if Sidney had been 
a stranger to her. Again she asked herself, “ Shall 
I not crush my feeling for him by anything I can 
say that will rouse his dislike? ” 


HER DEFENCE 


221 


Oh, Hermosa, do you know this young man’s char- 
acter at all yet, to think that may be the way to cre- 
ate his hostility? May it not in the end provoke his 
admiration ? 

However that might be, Sidney certainly showed 
no feeling of dislike towards Hermosa for her plain 
language. He said thoughtfully and with great sim- 
plicity : 

Of course, the Columbia is a sacred contract 
made between the government and our company. 
Have I told you, my father’s heart is bound up in the 

ship? He is just as proud of it as if he were 

He expects me to be just as enthusiastic over it as 
he is. He says he prays daily for a war so the ship 
when finished can have an actual test in battle.” 

Do you do that?” Mr. Howard asked soberly. 

I can’t say that I do exactly. But could you 
blame me very much if I felt willing to do anything 
to please my father, who is where he is to-night for 
my sake? ” 

The little group around the table was silent. That 
scene in the court room! That cell at the peniten- 
tiary! What tragedy this young man, this young 
fellow so willing to obliterate all social distinction, 
had known! How could the little group feel any- 
thing for him but profoundest pity? And oh, Her- 
mosa, you have good reason to say wildly in the 
silent command you are uttering, My heart must 
be still! I cannot bear to see him here! It is too 
cruel a pleasure for me to bear ! 

When the simple meal was over and Mrs. Ward 
and Athanasia were clearing off the dishes, Sidney 


222 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


had wheeled the blind man into the other room as 
he had the first time. There was a longing with him 
to talk with Hermosa again, without even the pres- 
ence of her father. And as if to help him in bring- 
ing about such an opportunity which his own simple 
and direct nature would never have attempted by 
evasion or diplomacy, Hermosa’s father again asked 
to be wheeled into his room to gather his weaving 
material together before he came back. And Her- 
mosa with a little heightening of color returned and 
without any real suspicion of Sidney’s longing, gave 
him the opportunity he had been wishing for. 

Do you, would you — ^be willing to answer a few; 
more questions. Miss Howard? I seem to be in the 
questioning mood to-night.” 

Yes. I may not be able to answer, but I will do 
my best.” 

« It is about your religion. Naturally, I hesitate. 
But do you really get satisfaction from it? ” 

Over Hermosa’s face a change came. At first Sid- 
ney feared for a moment that she was going to be 
angry. Next he experienced a swift self-reproach 
that he had even imagined such a thing. 

I cannot tell you — can any one tell another a 
thing like this ? But my religion is my life. I can- 
not imagine my life without it.” 

Then you are satisfied? ” 

Yes.” And Hermosa answered truly. For com- 
pared with her love even, her religion was the 
greater. 

“I don’t understand it. I am not satisfied. Of 


HER DEFENCE 


223 


course, I believe in God. But the belief does not 
make me happy.” 

You have had great and terrible experiences to 
face. Do you think that would account for some of 
j]^our unhappiness ” 

And you.^ Surely your experiences must be far 
harder than mine.” 

My mother,” Hermosa spoke almost as if she 
were alone in a meditative mood, that fascinated Sid- 
ney, “ died when I was six years old. Even at that 
age, I can remember how splendid her Christian faith 
was. She and father both belonged to the church 
and owed everything to it. In times of illness and 
trouble I do not know what would have happened to 
us if the church had not helped father and mother 
out. We have always been poor. One year after 
several months’ illness when our expenses were twice 
father’s earnings, a group of women in the church 
quietly paid off every obligation, leaving father to 
settle in time when he got well and was able to work 
again. Scores of times people in the church have 
helped not only in money but in deepest sympathy 
and friendship. The young people bought father’s 
chair for him and they are sending him now copies of 
the Bible for the blind. I have belonged to the Sun- 
day School all my life. It has given me a wonder- 
ful amount of help. I do not know what I would be 
without it. One of my dearest friends is my old 
Sunday School teacher. Our minister, Mr. Freeman, 
has stood by us in all sorts of trouble. He has been) 
with us at times of death, at mother’s death andH 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


224i 

again when my younger sister died, and when my 
older brother was brought home from the shipyard 
fatally injured, and again when father received the 
blow that led up to his present condition. All 
through these experiences it seems to pie the church 
has held out its helping hand and blessed us with its 
fostering care. I learned to love my Redeemer in 
the little church where Mr. Freeman has preached 
for twenty years. It is not a dead thing of formal- 
ity and custom, but a warm living reality. And eter- 
nity only can tell the story of what the church and 
religion have been to father and mother, to Mrs. 
]Ward and Athanasia and to me.” 

‘‘ I would give anything. Miss Howard, if I could 
have something like that in my life. I am hungry 
for it. Can you not tell me now how I can get it? ” 
“I? Tell^ow.^” 

‘^Yes. You feel all this is as a real Ihirig, you 
say. If it means so much to you why does it not 
mean the same to me? I am hungry for it. I am 
unhappy without it.” 

Unhappy? ” 

«Yes.” 

And for the moment across Hermosa’s mind and 
heart flashed the wild question, ‘^If he loves Pax 
Marston and she loves him how can he be unhappy? 
If ” 

But she answered quietly: 

My religious life has been a growth. I was Korn 
as naturally into the church as I was into my own 
home. I inherited my father’s and mother’s affec- 


HER DEFENCE 


225 


tionate feeling for it. It has seemed as easy and 
natural to love the Lord Jesus Christ as to love my 
own father or Athanasia. But when you ask me 
how you can come to have that feeling, that experi- 
ence, do you think it possible for me to tell you ex- 
actly? I— I ” 

Hermosa faltered. Deep waters seemed to roll up 
at her feet. Facing this young man, looking into his 
wistful eyes, remembering all she owed him, and all 
she had come to think of him — her heart was be- 
wildered at the request he made, and no wonder she 
faltered in front of his heart hunger. In all her 
brave strong life no such thing had ever happened to 
her. She had always believed that one person could 
lead another one to Jesus even as Andrew brought 
Peter to the Master. And so she said, with a brav- 
ery which even she herself never fathomed: ^^Have 
you not always called yourself a Christian? It has 
always seemed to me you have all the marks of one.” 

But why has not the church meant more to me ? 
Why have I not known all these beautiful things you 
say about it?” 

Because the church has through all the years 
worked silently and perhaps you have never realized 
yourself the debt you owe her. In the nature of 
the case, vast deeds of mercy, of daily philanthropy, 
of personal helpfulness, of world-wide sympathy 
have flowed out of the church in a stream so con- 
stant, so quiet, so unadvertised, that the world, par- 
don me, your world, has come to overlook the great- 
est force in all history. You have forgotten that the 


226 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


church is of divine origin. You have thought all 
the time that human progress was being caused by 
science, or education, or modern methods of busi- 
ness, or inventions, whereas the church of the living 
God has been the historical power under all real 
progress and happiness. And Christianity has not 
been a personal thing to you. It has been a thing 
of history but not of your history. You have re- 
spected it but never loved it.” 

Sidney looked thoughtfully a£ Hermosa. He 
could hear her father calling her name. 

‘‘ Tell me. Miss Howard, how I can be a real Chris- 
tian and enjoy my religious life as you enjoy yours.” 

“ Oh,” Hermosa cried with a passion that was the 
finest and purest that ever filled a human heart, you 
must learn to love the Lord and Master as your Re- 
deemer. You cannot be a Christian and stand out- 
side of Christianity, any more than you could be a 
real lover of some one and simply respect her. I 
cannot, oh, I cannot tell you. It is a thing between 
your own soul and the Saviour. You should not be 
asking me, but him.” 

She was so deeply agitated that sHe covered her 
face and before she heard her father calling her, she 
had offered a prayer as sincere as an angel’s that 
this soul she loved (oh, how truly!) might find the 
peace of God, 

Hermosa Howard, girl of the people, you will 
never know until you reach heaven, what a great 
prayer that was you offered for the soul of the man 
you loved. 


HER DEFENCE 


227 


Sidney did not stay much longer. His talk with 
Hermosa had opened up new channels of meditation. 
He wanted to get home, back into the big empty 
house, and in silence there muse over his own soul’s 
needs. 

When he came away he felt that somehow he was 
attended by the prayers of that simple group he 
had left in the little room. There was a tear on Her- 
mosa’s cheek as she said good-night. And it was 
her face and words that lingered with Sidney as he 
walked home. 

It was a habit of Sidney Cushing to follow every- 
thing out to its logical conclusion. He had been 
trained by Brander Cushing to ways of exact think- 
ing. In the work of the shipyard there was not a 
bit of designing or construction that did not come 
under the rule of strictest probing and testing. 
Sidney had developed a habit with himself of exact- 
ness and honesty which permeated every phase .of his 
thinking being. He was incapable of hypocrisy. A 
thing must be true all over or it was not true. If It 
led to a complete upsetting of all previous habits let 
it, but the main thing was not to be juggled with. 

He was tremendously in earnest in his longing for 
religious satisfaction. For the time everything else 
was of less account ; even Pax, even his father, even 
the ship and all it stood for were not to be compared 
with his own soul-hunger for God and his peace. 

As the time went by unnoticed that night, Sidney 
Cushing entered upon a wrestling for a soul-vision 
by the side of which all physical battles are pastime. 


228 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Men talk profoundly of what they call the great his- 
torical battlefields and campaigns of famous cap- 
tains of war. They are all as cheap and childish as 
the blocks a baby piles up and tips over compared 
with the conflict that a soul feels when it is really 
battling for its own life. And it may truly be said 
that when Sidney bared his heart to God that night 
and cried out in real soul-hunger for Him, a scene 
was being enacted that surpassed for magnitude and 
grandeur all the pitched battlefields of history. 

At last at some time in the deep silence that 
settled on the library where he knelt (how long, he 
had not measured) there came to him some clear and 
distinct personal feeling of his relation to the divine 
and he was saying to himself as he unconsciously re- 
peated Hermosa’s very words, Oh, I must love Him 
as well as respect Him. And if I love Him, I must 
follow Him, and if I follow Him where will it lead 
me? If I actually become a Christian whak will it 
require of me? A belief in the Brotherhood? A 
love for the Kingdom of God and a real honest pas- 
sion to build it up ? ” 

And then there flashed into his mind the picture of 
his father as he had last seen him, his hard indomit- 
able will defying disgrace, living in the ambition of 
his vision of that perfect engine of destruction for 
which he daily prayed a war might occur to test its 
proud and towering strength. How? If he, Sid- 
ney, became a real follower of this majestic Re- 
deemer of the world, could he continue to have an 
enthusiastic faith *in the things which made his own 


HER DEFENCE 


229 


father enthusiastic even in the penitentiary? And 
what did he owe to that father? Would it break his 
heart to say to him now, “ Father, I am a personal 
lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not and can- 
not any longer feel as you do about the business of 
our lives. I cannot be honest with you and conceal 
a real revolution of heart and mind. You will have 
to seek your satisfaction alone. I cannot any longer 
meet your ambition. It does not represent my pas- 
sion in life.” 

It seemed to him, as he asked these questions, that 
he was in Gethsemane with his Lord. He pressed his 
head upon his hands and cried aloud, My Lord and 
my God ! ” 


CHAPTER X 


Sidney’s conversion; the walkout at the ship- 

V 

yard; the letter to pax; father and son at 
the prison; the miracle of the ages; a let- 
ter FROM MRS. MARSTON; SIDNEY AND HERMOSA ; 
THE CHRISTENING OF THE “ COLUMBIA ” ; BRANDER 

Cushing’s ambition satisfied. 

W HEN the gray light of early dawn first en- 
tered the library where Sidney Cushing had 
spent the night in his quest for a God to love, it 
found him very close to his heart’s desire. 

This was how Sidney Cushing found God, in his 
overmastering demand, in his soul-hunger which 
would not be denied. And up he rose from his knees 
as the sun came into the library, thenceforth a new 
man in Christ Jesus. 

I do not think even he realized the full meaning 
of that change in his whole life purpose. He could 
not. It was too great. Men talk about the beauty 
of a moral life, and Sidney had led it on a very high 
level, but he himself told Hermosa afterwards that 
there was as much difference between his life now and 
before, as if he had really been living the life of a 
desperate sinner. So much more resplendent and 
towering is the spiritual than the moral definition of 
Being. 


230 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 231 


But if he did not grasp all the meaning of his new 
life there were certain factors in it that were clear 
enough to him' even that morning, and they grew 
more clear every hour. His spiritual vision seemed 
to affect all his relations to others, even to Pax 
Marston. He did not know, even now, exactly what 
his own real feeling towards her was. He had told 
her father he loved her. And he had been honest at 
the time. But did he really and truly love her as 
one should love a woman who was to be his wife? 
What did he know of Pax Marston’s religious con- 
victions? Absolutely nothing. What was there in 
her best nature that would respond now to his own 
vision of a God to love and serve? He was unable 
to say. What would be her feeling if he were to 
write her now and tell her that he was another man 
from the one she had met and known? What would 
she say if she knew that the entire world in which 
she and her people had moved all their lives was so 
changed to Sidney that he had lost his respect for 
it, and was beginning to ask himself how he could 
make the stupendous change of a life occupation 
which had become anti-Christian, hostile to every 
new and fresh definition he was gaining of Christian 
discipleship? 

And at this point he was irresistibly driven in his 
questioning up to that indomitable figure in the peni- 
tentiary. His father! His ambition! The new 
warship! This monster killer, around which Bran- 
der Cushing’s prayers revolved ! 

How about all that! Could he go to his father 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


and deliberately say, Father, I have had a religious 
experience which has raised serious questions in my 
mind about the entire subject of war and war ma- 
terial. I do not believe I can make you understand, 
but as I look at it now the whole thing in which we 
are engaged seems horrible. It is all in absolute 
contradiction to the teachings of Jesus, who has be- 
come my Master. Father, do not misunderstand 
me. I do not, of course, mean that we can repudiate 
a sacred contract. We must make the Columbia the 
most perfect fighting machine afioat. But it ought 
to be the last we shall ever undertake. I know that 
your ambition is centered in this ship. I know you 
have said you daily pray for war in order to give the 
ship a practical test. But oh, father, can I make 
you understand how terrible it all seems to me now, 
how utterly impossible for a Christian disciple to en- 
tertain ? " 

Well, could he face his father with a speech like 
that.? The father who had given his very life for 
his son.? Could he pretend, in the face of a sacrifice 
like that, that his new religious convictions were 
higher and better.? Could he break his father’s heart 
now by withdrawing his enthusiastic support from 
a lifelong ambition which burned so fiercely in that 
• heroic heart and around which the father had poured 
an unstinted passion divided only by the affection 
he lavished on his only son ! 

Or, was there an alternative? Might he not pre- 
tend to be the same as of old .? Why say anything to 
undeceive his father .? Why not keep still and let the 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 233 


truth of his new life appear in time, but not at once? 
Why not spare his father the shock of this disclosure 
and the bitter disappointment he would inevitably 
suffer if it were revealed to him in all its intensity? 

He went over all this with deep earnestness. I do 
not think, indeed, I am sure, he was not unhappy or 
morbid over it in any way. There was a peace of 
God in his soul, which was the finest, most joyful 
thing he had ever felt. That was indeed his best 
proof of the new and happy life he had begun. While 
he could not escape the questions about his father 
and how at last he ought to answer them, he was not 
anxious about it. And at the close of that eventful 
day, after he had offered his nightly prayer for bless- 
ing on his father, he sank into a sleep so refreshing 
and blessed that it seemed to him when he awoke as 
if the angels of paradise had been there. 

During the days that followed, he worked as usual 
at the ship-yard. Unexpected problems came up that 
week. In the first place, there was a serious accident 
to one of the traveling cranes. It was of such a na- 
ture that it would require several weeks to repair the 
damage. In the second place, there had been delay 
on the part of a supply company to furnish neces- 
sary fittings, and this delay would embarrass the 
work on the ship in that department. 

But the most serious thing that confronted Sidney 
at the most important crisis in his life was the rumor 
that greeted him the second day that week, of a 
threatened strike. The moment it came to him he 
called in Stuart, the yard superintendent. 


234 A BUILDER OF SHIPS 

“ This is serious news, Stuart. I hope it isn’t 
true.” 

Stuart shrugged his big shoulders. 

“I’m afraid it is, though. It’s been brewing all 
winter.” 

“Has it anything to do with my father or me.? 
Don’t hesitate to say so if it has.” 

“ No. Nothing to do with it. Purely sympa- 
thetic strike to stand by the men at Farrar’s Casting 
Works. Three hundred of them went out yesterday. 
The balance probably to-day. We shall get some 
word before the end of the week. Maybe sooner.” 

Sidney sat in the office confronting Stuart 
thoughtfully. 

“ I wish father was here.” 

He said it so quietly and naturally that Stuart 
was deeply touched. He sat silent, looking at Sid- 
ney sympathetically. 

“ Is there anything we can do, Stuart ” 

“ Not a thing. We’re as helpless as babies. If 
your father was here he couldn’t do a thing. If the 
men go out it will be on a general order, and you will 
be notified.” 

That very afternoon, Sidney, sitting in the office, 
was advised of a delegation from the casting rooms 
who wished an interview. At once he understood 
that matters had come to a head. 

The delegation came in, fronted by MacKenzie, 
foreman of the department. He was somewhat em- 
barrassed, but after a moment stated quite bluntly 
the situation at Farrar’s mills and gave notice of the 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 235 


general order from the officers in charge, ordering 
withdrawal of all the men in the casting rooms of 
Cushing’s shipyard. 

Sidney was very quiet and simply said, 

‘‘ When are the men going out? ” 

To-morrow or next day.” 

You say there is no dissatisfaction over your 
own scale? ” 

“ No, sir. It’s all right.” 

“ Do you have any idea when the difficulties at 
Farrar’s will be settled? ” 

“ I have not.” 

If you were in my place, would you hire men to 
take your places after you go out? ” 

MacKenzie was dumbfounded at the simple ques- 
tion. Finally he managed to say: 

I’m not in your place.” 

“ Will there be trouble if we try to get in new 
men? ” 

I can’t say.” 

How many men have you in the casting rooms ? ” 

“ Eight hundred and fifty.” 

Sidney looked very thoughtfully at him. Mac- 
Kenzie had been in the shipyard ever since Sidney 
could remember. 

‘‘I’m sorry for this, of course, MacKenzie. We 
are under contract to get out the Columbia by the 
end of the three-year limit. The delays have already 
put us back seriously. Your action will cripple the 
entire work. I shall do all in my power to seek a 
peaceful and Christian adjustment of the difficulty. 


236 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


But of course I have no influence with Farrar’s Cast- 
ing Works. I don’t know as there is anything more 
I can say just now, only to express my deep regret 
that your action comes at just this time.” 

MacKenzie turned to go out but stopped at the 
door. All the men stopped in the corridor to 
listen, 

“ I don’t mind saying, Mr. Sidney, that I’m sorry 
this has come up right now. We’ve no quarrel with 
you or the yard. But orders are orders.” 

Sidney smiled sadly but made no answer and the 
men slowly went away. 

That night, Sidney, as he sat in the library, after 
several hours’ conference at the shipyard offices with 
his superintendent, decided to go up to the peniten- 
tiary and counsel with Brander Cushing over the 
situation. He did not feel able to cope with it alone. 
The superintendents themselves had been divided as 
to the best course of action. Several had asserted 
with more or less emphasis that it was impossible to 
find eight hundred and fifty skilled men for the cast- 
ing rooms. 

Others just as vigorously declared that the men 
could be found, and that the company ought to get 
them and pay no attention to the walkout. 

Sidney longed to see his father. At the same time 
he confronted the thought of meeting him with this 
trouble. He knew what his father would have said 
to MacKenzie. He would have moved heaven and 
earth to fill the places of the men who had walked 
out. At three diflPerent times in the history of the 


JHE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 2S7 


Cushmg yard big strikes had occurred. Cushing had 
fought them all. Once he had called in the State 
militia and Dockville had been an armed camp. 
There had been some lives lost, an immense amount 
of suffering among women and babies, an enforced 
idleness lasting over six months and finally a com- 
promise which both sides might just as well have 
made at the beginning. 

With his mind more or less busied with all this 
new and perplexing situation, Sidney was in a condi- 
tion of remarkable tranquillity. What had come 
into his life? What was the meaning of this joyful 
peace? It was nothing but his full and unquestion- 
ing acceptance of God’s promise, his willingness to 
take the Master at his word when he said, ‘‘ In the 
world ye have tribulation. But be of good cheer : I 
have overcome the world.” 

It was late, but one task Sidney set himself before 
he slept : to take the first train in the morning to see 
his. father. Before he went up there he felt impelled 
to answer Pax Marston’s letter. And that, in spite 
of the fact that when he searched his heart honestly 
he could not say to himself that he was convinced as 
he should be of his feeling. Nevertheless he wrote 
this letter and posted it on his way to the station in 
the morning, sending it to the care of Bennett’s at 
Bergen. 

*^My Deae Friend: Your letter was one that I 
feel I must answer, and yet I am sure it will be 
difficult for me to write as I should owing to remark- 


238 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


able events which are happening and to a great ex- 
perience I am having — so deep and great that they 
may have much to do with our friendship. Will you 
understand? I am going to write as frankly and 
simply as I can, because it is due to us both not to 
deceive ourselves over such a great matter. 

‘‘ I cannot disguise from you or myself that when 
your father (during my interview wuth him) declared 
that he could not entertain the idea of any further 
acquaintance with you, the world seemed at once to 
be a hopeless place to me. I will not attempt to con- 
ceal from you what has been a fact — that from my 
first meeting with you at the launching of the Re- 
puhlic my heart was drawn to you; and — your let- 
ter gives me excuse for saying that your heart re- 
sponded to mine. All this I frankly express because 
I feel so much will depend upon what you will think 
of the confidence I am now about to repose in you, 
believing you will understand me, and understand, 
above all, the reason why I am writing as I do in this 
unusual manner. 

I have, within the last few days, had a deep 
religious experience, which I know will have a vital 
influence on all my life. Until I know how this will 
affect your life I do not dare ask you to consider me 
as you might if your parents gave their consent and 
your own convictions harmonized with mine. I am 
saying this very poorly ; it is because I am not able 
to express my feelings in the best way. 

“But I can and must say this, in order to be 
honest with you. My definition of life is not wKal i£ 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 239 


once was. The whole thing seems different. There 
is one verse in the Bible that seems to ring in my 
ears continually: ^Wherefore, if any man is in 
Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are 
passed away ; behold, they are become new.’ 

“ You will want to know what this means. Among 
other things, this, which will perhaps affect our re- 
lations more than any other : I have a growing hor- 
ror in my heart and mind of the whole subject of 
war. It seems to me like the very contradiction of 
all the Christ spirit that our nation, a Christian na- 
tion, should be building just such monsters as the 
one I, as a builder, am at work on this moment. The 
more I think of it, the more I am amazed that, after 
all these centuries of Jesus Christ, the nations which 
call themselves Christian are the nations most fever- 
ishly eager to build more and bigger navies. My 
soul recoils from all this, and I am facing the entire 
question with a prayer in my heart for wisdom and 
strength ; for to-morrow I am going to see my father, 
and I do not think I can keep from him long, if at all, 
my feeling in this matter. His passion in life, his 
ambition, is this growing warship. He daily prays 
for war to test its vast power. And now that I can- 
not feel as he does any longer, it raises questions in 
my mind such as I am raising about the effect this 
confession will have with you. You have been reared 
in the atmosphere of war. Your people, your rela- 
tives are all connected more or less closely with navy 
and army circles. The people who are your dearest 
friends in Washington would no doubt regard any 


240 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


one like me almost as if I were insane, or unbalanced. 
What do you think of me after reading so far? Par- 
don me, I cannot help asking it. For we are both 
old enough to know that if two people are to be 
happy together the religious tie must be the greatest 
of all. I dare not risk your happiness or mine on an 
uncertainty, for I am firmly convinced that a real, 
permanent, enduring, satisfying love cannot exist 
between two people if they cannot agree on the es- 
sential faith of a religious life. 

‘‘I suppose your father and mother gave you the 
real reason why they would not consent to our fur- 
ther acquaintance. If they did not, I am going to ; 
for it will not help matters any to try to keep still 
about it, 

“ It is because my father is now regarded by the 
world as a convict. I do not need to say any more 
about that. I accept the verdict of the world in 
which your father and mother live and I have no 
argument to bring against it and I would not make 
an appeal from it. 

But now that there is added to that reason for 
your parents’ hostility to me the fact that I am 
personally antagonistic to the very thing that makes 
your father’s position possible, of course I know 
very well what effect it will have on him and your 
mother. I would not attempt to disguise or conceal 
my views from them. And what effect my views will 
have, I know without question. 

Have you understood? My heart is hungry. I 
am going to venture to say this : If after all I have 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES ^41 


written, if after a full knowledge and acceptance of 
all that I am and hope to be, you can still feel that 
your life can be shared with mine, and that mine will 
satisfy you in the most perfect way, I feel that my 
heart would go out to you in fullest and truest af- 
fection. Pax, I cannot say either more or less. If 
your answer is such that even father and mother and 
social verdicts and the prejudice of the world are 
less than your need of me and mine of you — we are 
of age; true love is a sacred thing; no one would 
have the right to separate us ; but nothing less than 
a perfect agreement on the things that make life to-, 
gether permanent and joyous is possible. 

“ With all I have written I must tell you I gleaned 
from your letter that my father’s fate had not 
changed your thought of me. After all I have been 
through — the treatment of old friends and the cold- 
ness of acquaintances — it was an unspeakable com- 
fort to me to believe that all this had not influenced 
your feeling or prejudiced your mind against me. 

I know I have not written all this as I might 
have said it to you. If you read this to your mother, 
as you are at liberty to do, will you express to her 
my kindest regards. She was very kind to me that 
first evening I was in Washington. How long ago 
that all seems ! 

Your friend, 

“ Sidney Cushing.” 

Was he fickle.?^ How was it he did not know his 
own mind better? Was he laying down the law to the 


24<2 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


girl, making stern terms with her, demanding that 
she conform to his beliefs and opinions before he 
would tell her he loved her? Could any woman con- 
sent to be wooed in this fashion? After posting the 
letter these questions assailed him, and he was al- 
most tempted to write another letter. But going 
over all things, he did not know what he might have 
said differently; and after all, the main things re- 
mained. Pax’s father and mother opposed him ; that 
in itself had profound influence over her. And his 
own change of view, his new vision of life, was a 
thing he could not deny, and no matter whether it 
seemed to make him uncertain in his own mind, the 
fact of his religious upheaval would have to be reck- 
oned with by Pax— and in what way? He did not 
know. 

As he neared the penitentiary the thought of his 
father gradually swept out of his mind the thought 
of that fascinating daughter of the admiral seated 
pensively by the open window overlooking the danc- 
ing waters of the beautiful Balholm Bay on the 
Sogne Fiord. 

Here, at least, was a love he was unquestioningly 
sure of. Oh, with what passion he loved that grim, 
pale-faced, unbroken figure that shook its fist each 
morning in the face of God and the universe and de- 
fied them to do their worst! This father who had 
deliberately sacrificed for him all that men count 
dear! Oh, how he yearned to be to him such a son 
as no son had ever been since the world began ! And 
yet he was going to him now with a new and added 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 243 


passion — the newly born love of a Redeemer who had 
said once, If a man love father or mother more 
than me, he is not worthy of me.” 

When he went into the warden’s office, as his regu- 
lar habit was when he visited his father, Armstrong 
was busy with one of the prison officials. When he 
was at liberty and turned to greet Sidney there was 
a look on his face so remarkable that Sidney was at 
once impressed by it, 

“ You have come to see your father. Wait. I 
want you to meet him in my office alone.” 

He showed Sidney into his own private room, and 
went away without another word. When he came 
back with Brander Cushing he said, “ Take all the 
time you want. No one will disturb you.” 

He closed the door on father and son and each 
looked earnestly at the other. 

Father, you have been ill? ” 

No. I was never so well in my life.” 

Silence. 

“ I had to come up to see you about — about — a 
new trouble. I grieve to vex you with it, but I need 
your help. I suppose we have only the regulation 
time to talk. We must make the most of it.” 

You heard what Mr. Armstrong said? ” 

Yes. He is a gentleman in every way. You like 
him, don’t you?” 

“ I love him.” 

Love him ? ” 

Yes, Sid. He has been a brother to me. Bu^ 
tell me what your trouble is.” 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


^44 


“ The men are going out of the casting room on 
a sympathetic strike with Farrar’s Mills’ men. Com- 
ing at this time it will greatly embarrass the work. 
I confess I don’t know how to handle the situation, 
and Stuart and Merrill don’t agree about the best 
course to take.” 

“ Are our men dissatisfied with their scale? ” 

‘‘No. MacKenzie says they have no quarrel over 
it. It is a purely sympathetic action.” 

“ Will they fight new men if we try to get them? ” 

“ I’m afraid they will.” 

Silence. 

“ Will the men arbitrate? ” 

“ I don’t know. You remember, father, Farrar 
feels — well, you know he feels bitter over our action 
five years ago when we outbid him on the new type 
torpedoes. I understand he will not lift his finger to 
help us now.” 

“ That was all my fault, Sid. We suffer for it 
now.” 

Sidney looked at his father in astonishment. 
Brander Cushing trembled. Sidney went on. 

“ What would you advise, father? ” 

“ Have you talked with the men ? ” 

“ Yes. They say they are obeying orders from 
those higher. ' I know they regret going out at this 
time.” 

Silence. Brander Cushing’s lips were moving. 
What ! What was he saying ? 

“Father, are you ill? The work here is killing 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 245 


‘‘No, Sid. I thank God I ever came here.” 

“ You — ever — came — here! ” 

“ Yes.” 

Brander Cushing had been sitting. He now rose 
and stretched himself up to his full height and said 
in a tone of the most exquisite mingling of humility 
and exultation Sidney had ever heard : 

“ I thank God I ever came here. For here in this 
place of my punishment I have found my Re- 
deemer.” 

“ Father! ” Sidney cried. He had arisen, his in- 
tense astonishment and bewilderment breaking out 
into the cry that burst from him. It seemed to him 
that the Master had come into that little room, that 
the miracle of raising the dead to life was being acted 
out again, and that he and his father were the dead 
walking out of the tomb, hand in hand together, 
never more to part until they walked the blessed 
fields of that paradise where no blight has ever with- 
ered the immortal blossoms planted by the angels of 
God. 

“Yes, Sidney. Thanks to the message brought 
by Mr. Freeman and Mr. Armstrong, I am a new 
man in Christ Jesus. Oh, can you understand it, my 
boy? ” 

“ Understand it? Look at me, father! ” 

Down Sidney’s face the tears rained. He stretched 
out his arms to his father. Brander Cushing saw 
that light shining in his son’s face. And they em- 
braced each other as if each had welcomed the other 
home from the world that lies beyond our dreams. 


M6 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


After a while Brander Cushing was saying calmly: 

“ This was last Sunday. At what time, did you 
say? ” 

Sidney told him. 

In an awed voice, Brander Cushing said, “ Sid- 
ney, the light came to us at the same time. What 
do you hear sounding in your heart every mo- 
ment? ” 

If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. 
Old things have passed away. Behold, they are be- 
come new.” 

“ It is the same with me. God spoke to us at the 
same time and in the same way.” 

They were sitting looking at each other silently 
now, musing over the great miracle of transforma- 
tion. 

Finally Brander Cushing rose again and said 
simply : 

‘‘ I want Armstrong to come in.” 

Warden Armstrong came into his office and Bran- 
der Cushing said with the simple earnestness of a 
child: 

Sidney, this is the man who led me into the light. 
He and Freeman. I owe to them more than I can 
say. Armstrong, my brother, this is the greatest 
day of my life. My own son ” 

In a few words he told Armstrong of Sidney’s ex- 
perience. Armstrong’s face beamed. Now Sidney 
understood the look that had greeted him when he 
first met him. 

“ There is another,” Brander Cushing said wist- 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 247 


fully. I wonder if we could have Andrew with us 
a few minutes ? ” 

Armstrong opened the door and beckoned to a 
figure standing in the outer office, and Andrew 
Brodig, the anarchist, came in. 

Warden Armstrong had seen some strange things 
during his charge of that penitentiary, but that was 
perhaps the most remarkable of them all. 

Brander Cushing had his arm over Brodig’s 
shoulder as he told Sidney how he and Andrew had 
met the Master face to face at the same time, and a 
few minutes after, they were all kneeling in that little 
room while Warden Armstrong was praying. 

Men talk as if the divine and miraculous were 
vague and far off in this scientific age. Some, even 
in the church itself, declare that the age of miracles 
has ceased. Some even say that miracles never hap- 
pened. But the greatest miracle of all history was 
being proved there in that little prison office where 
the warden was praying with a great heart full of 
thanksgiving that the Spirit of God had shown his 
power over three men, each different, each distinct in 
personality, but all three from this time on to be 
united in a tie of Christian faith which some time 
will unite all faiths, all classes and all mankind in one 
universal brotherhood. It is simply what is happen- 
ing in every age of history. Did not the Master say : 
“ And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto me 

Before Sidney went back home after that wonder- 
ful meeting with his father arid Andrew Brodig, he 


MS 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


had a heart-to-heart talk about his own change of 
view. He had been a little fearful about that phase 
of his convictions. It did not seem possible that his 
father could go the same length. 

I have come to have a horror of war, father.” 

You need not be afraid to tell me. Are not the 
old things new? ” 

“ Can you feel as I do ? ” 

“It is hard, very hard for me to change my old 
habits, Sid. But I can truly say the whole thing is 
different. We must complete the Columbia, of 
course. But I pray God it may never be used in 
any war.” 

Sidney went home with a song of praise singing in 
his heart all the way. His father had given him the 
best counsel he could as to the management of the 
strike. Farrar was hostile. The type of workman 
employed in the casting room was not numerous. 
The labor required was of such a kind that inexperi- 
enced men would do more damage and waste more 
material than the company could afford. But he 
counseled Sidney against any resort to force to 
maintain an armed industrial situation. 

“ It is possible, Sid, that other men will walk out 
in a short time. It would not surprise me if half or 
three-fourths of our men go out this winter. If the 
works close down, you will have to make a new con- 
tract with Washington. Pray for wisdom. Don’t 
forget we are acting now under orders from another 
Master. And don’t worry.” 

Events moved rapidly after Sidney’s return to 
Dockville. 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES M9 


His father’s surmise came almost exactly true. 
Stuart and McLeish differed point blank about the 
policy to be pursued. Sidney deferred largely to 
Merrill, an old and experienced superintendent. 
Merrill was for getting new men to put into the cast- 
ing room, but for pursuing every peaceful method 
possible. A few men were secured. They were not 
molested by the men who had gone out. But a 
month later over a thousand men struck from the 
fitters and riveters. At the end of two weeks more, 
less than 1,500 men were in the yard. And one day 
two weeks later these all walked out, leaving Cush- 
ing’s shipyard empty except for the superintendents 
and office force. 

Merrill, Stuart, McLeish and Sidney met in Sid- 
ney’s room and McLeish said in his dry Scotch man- 
ner : 

“I believe I will take that personally conducted 
tour to the Holy Land my minister has been talking 
about. There will be nothing doing here till the 
birdies nest again.” 

It looks as if we were tied up indefinitely. You’ll 
have to go down to Washington and see the powers 
that be about our contract. The whole thing is in 
the air,” said Merrill. 

But as it happened at this crisis, for tHe first 
time in his life Sidney’s father was taken ill. It was 
a fever that put him in the prison hospital and kept 
him there three months. 

Armstrong sent for Sidney and he took up quar- 
ters in the prison as a guest of the warden. Night 
after night Brander Cushing’s spirit drew near the 


250 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


shores of that other country and then drew back be- 
fore the prow touched the landing-place. Night af- 
ter night Sidney watched, not like a son, but like a 
mother, over that almost breathless body and prayed 
(oh, how he prayed!) with heart’s yearning for heal- 
ing mercy. 

In that time he came to know Warden Armstrong 
and love him. The man simply compelled his affec- 
tion by what he was and did. There was not a 
hardened, brutalized, desperate, God-forsaken crea- 
ture in that State prison that Warden Armstrong 
did not love with all his heart. 

When Brander Cushing finally came safely back 
from that mysterious journey it was five months 
since the ship-yard had been closed. Four thousand 
men idly tramped the streets of Dockville, jammed 
its saloons, where they spent the last cent and more, 
and grew every day more restless, irritable and un- 
reasonable. 

Sidney had succeeded through Stuart and Mer- 
rill in making some of the necessary arrangements 
about the ship contract with the government; but 
there was a part of the business which needed his 
own presence at Washington, and as soon as he was 
able to leave his father he planned to go down there. 

Will you see Admiral Marston, Sid?” 

No, father. I don’t expect to.” Sidney spoke 
with a sigh. 

‘‘ I am sorry. Sorry, Sid.” 

‘^Miss Marston and her mother are still abroad. 
I do not know where.” 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 


251 


“ Do you still think of her, Sid? ” 

‘^Yes. I wrote her five months ago. I have 
had no answer.” 

It is because of her father and mother? ” 
think so — ^yes.” 

And on my account? ” 

Silence. 

I am sorry, sorry, Sid. What trouble for mul- 
titudes grows out of my sin ! ” 

No, father!” For the first time since his con- 
version Sidney felt a pang of real distress. “ I can- 
not bear to hear you speak like that. If Admiral 
Marston and his wife shut us out on account of — 
of your being here, I cannot continue to hold the 
same feeling for Miss Marston. But — I think she 
does not care any longer.” 

When Sidney reached home a quantity of mail 
had accumulated at the house. Most of this was of 
a business nature, and as he planned to go to Wash- 
ington the next day, he attended to those letters first. 
But among his personal letters he noted one with an 
English postmark and an unfamiliar handwriting. 
As soon as he could, he opened this and read it. It 
was written at Portsmouth, England, and was from 
Mrs. Marston. She wrote: 

“My Dear Mr. Cushing: In your remarkable 
letter written to my daughter while we were at Bal- 
holm you gave her permission to share its contents 
with me, which she did. 

It was, as I have said, a most remarkable letter. 


252 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


And after what may seem to you like an unreason- 
ably long interval I am venturing to answer it my- 
self, but in all I say I voice my daughter’s senti- 
ments as my own. 

“ Aside from the facts which before your letter 
made impossible any thought of a union between 
our families, the astonishing confession you make 
about your attitude towards war renders even the 
slightest hope for you out of the question. We 
might in time have come to overlook the fact of your 
father’s disgrace, but there would be no hope of 
reconciling such extreme views as you say you hold 
with Admiral Marston’s position and that of my 
daughter and myself. 

‘‘If you have reached the impractical mental and 
moral condition where you detest war, we have not. 
I do not hesitate to say frankly that I regard such 
sentiments as treason to the nation. What would 
become of us if we had no navy or army? The 
whole thing is impossible to imagine. If you should 
come into our family circle with such convictions, 
what happiness would be possible for any of us? 

“I trust to your honor as a gentleman (and I 
know I need not emphasize this) not to pursue your 
attentions towards my daughter. It will only result 
in useless suffering for her and all of us. 

“With all I have written I can truthfully say 
I have entertained for you a very high regard which 
I earnestly wish you had not in a great measure re- 
moved by the remarkable letter you wrote. 

“ Very sincerely yours, 

“ Lydia Maeston.” 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 253 


The first feeling Sidney had after reading this 
letter was anger. After that passed, he experienced 
a feeling of dull pain. The fact that Pax had not 
answered his letter but had left it for her mother to 
do affected him strangely. When he called up her 
vivacious, kindly manner he was in despair. When 
he reflected that she had been willing to relegate such 
a matter to her mother, he was beset with loss of 
respect for her. 

And with all else he realized that after what Mrs. 
Marston had written, and Pax had not written, his 
romance was over. 

A whole year went by. Cushing’s shipyard was 
still empty. But one of the greatest strikes in his- 
tory was nearing its end. After months of suffering, 
hatred, loss, a settlement was reached. It might 
have been reached at the beginning if all the parties 
concerned had obeyed the teachings of the Prince 
of Peace. One side in the controversy had been as 
selfish and lacking in brotherhood as the other. Both 
sides had trampled on the Golden Rule and the rights 
and duties of man. 

But one morning, Sidney opened his office window 
and watched the smoke curl up out of the big chim- 
neys. At the end of the week, Cushing’s shipyard 
clanged and roared and hammered and bellowed with 
its multitudinous and many-mouthed din. Four 
thousand men poured in at the gates and with hungry 
eagerness resumed labor, calling it sweet after the 
long idleness. And the Columbia again began to take 
shape and Sidney eyed it with awed astonishment and 
conflicting emotions. 


254 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


That same week new business belonging to the re- 
sumption of the work called him again to Washing- 
ton. 

One evening at his hotel Ed Marston called to see 
him. Sidney was glad to meet him, although the 
meeting awoke some painful memories. 

I didn’t know whether you would care to see me 
or not,” said Ed, somewhat shyly. ^^But I wanted 
to see you, so I came over.” 

I shall always be glad to see you, Marston. I 
hope you will never let anything get in the way of 
our friendship.” 

Marston was silent longer than usual. Finally he 
burst out: 

Say, Cushing, I can’t help feeling mean about 
our family, about the way we’ve treated you. It’s 
treating you like dirt. Old Unc’ Marston is a prig. 
He tried to get me to excuse him for turning you 
down. But I wouldn’t excuse him if he was the 
President and offered to resign in my favor. What 
do I care if you have changed your sentiments about 
war.f^ What has that got to do with a man’s or a 
woman’s friendship.? I used to think Aunt Lyddy 
and Pax had some sense, but ” 

«Yes.?” 

But they haven’t got enough to ballast a birch- 
bark canoe. Tell you what, I feel ashamed of the 
Marston family, all but myself.” 

Marston looked at him doubtfully. 

Thank you, Marston. It means more than I can 
tell to have your friendship.” 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 255 


“ You won’t faint, will you, if I give out a bit of 
news that hasn’t yet been signaled to the fleet?” 

Sidney colored, but answered with a clear smile. 

No. You needn’t fear.” 

Well, it will be public in a few days. Aunt 
OCyddy wrote me that Pax is engaged to a Captain 
Lloyd-Hereford of His Majesty’s Portsmouth fleet. 
Think of that! A captain with two L’s to his 
front name and parted in the middle 1 ” 

I wish her joy,” said Sidney gravely. 

“ Well, I don’t. I wanted you for my cousin. I 
never did like this fellow Lloyd hyphen Hereford.” 

‘‘ Say no more about it, Marston,” said Sidney 
gently. 

‘‘Call the incident closed? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ But not our friendship? ” 

“ No ; I think everything of you.” 

“If I can ever save you from drowning, drbp me 
a line, won’t you? ” cried Marston eagerly. “There 
isn’t a thing I wouldn’t do for you, but it seems i 
can’t be your cousin.” 

Sidney assured him that he reciprocated his feel- 
ing and went back to Dockville with his heart glow- 
ing over this friendship. 

From this time on until the eventful day came 
when the Columbia was ready to be launched, Sidney 
entered on a new and powerful development of his 
whole nature. 

He found time with all the rest to study the his- 
tory of the church. Day after day, that institution) 


^56 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


loomed up grander and more fascinating. He was 
entering new cathedrals of beauty every day. All 
of the church’s great record of service, sacrifice, 
heroism, martyrdom, unfolded before him. 

During this time Sidney was unconsciously yield- 
ing to a growing interest in Hermosa Howard. 

Long before, he had discovered that Hermosa was 
more than his equal intellectually. Her long-con- 
tinued tutoring of her father had developed in her 
a quick and accurate mind, not only stored with 
knowledge but beautified by her use of it. 

His visits to Mrs. Ward’s and to the blind man 
had continued with growing trouble and unrest for 
Hermosa. Athanasia had simply accepted Sidney’s 
presence as a joy unspeakable which for her simple 
soul might go on to all eternity without a change. It 
was enough for the crippled girl to sit and look at 
him. She would fold her hands and go over again 
the day of that rescue, when Sidney grasped her 
hand and pulled her in through the window. 

One day Sidney was with Hermosa’s father. 
Athanasia had not been well and had stayed home 
from the store that afternoon. Sidney had brought 
some models from the shop and was showing them to 
Mr. Howard when Athanasia came across the hall 
and in the freedom that was common with the two 
families entered the room. Sidney greeted her 
kindly, as he always did, and she sat down to listen 
to what he was telling Mr. Howard. 

Your prediction about the bigger battleship has 
already come true, Mr. Howard. The Columbia is 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 257 


not yet finished, but Great Britain yesterday laid the 
keel of a dreadnought that out-measures ours by 
every dimension, and her new guns will carry a mile 
farther than ours. Germany is taking steps to out- 
class Great Britain and in a few months will begin 
a war monster that will make the Columbia look like 
an obsolete toy.” 

The end must come soon,” said the blind man 
calmly. “Is that you, Athanasia? Won’t you go 
to Hermosa’s room and get me that book she has 
been reading called The Great Illusion, that’s making 
such a stir in Europe.? ” 

Athanasia went into Hermosa’s room, and brought 
out the book. Then she stood by Sidney’s chair lis- 
tening. 

Suddenly she said : “ Mr. Cushing, did you know 
Hermosa saved that board you found the day of the 
factory fire?” 

“ No!” 

“ She did, and she’s got it in her room. I saw it 
just now. She found it down in the alley when it 
was cleared out.” 

Silence. 

“Why should she want to keep that?” 

“ I think it is because she thinks so much of you. 
She never lets me touch the board, and she told me 
not to tell you, but I think you ought to know some 
time.” 

Sidney rose. Hermosa was coming into the room. 
He could not tell in the dim light whether she had 
heard Athanasia or not. 


258 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


My department closed early to-day on account 
of the remodeling of the store. Are you feeling bet- 
ter, Athanasia ? ” 

Yes. I think I can go to work to-morrow.” 

“ I hope you can. Excuse me, Mr. Cushing, I am 
tired.” 

It was the first time in her life Sidney had ever 
heard her say those words. She went into her room 
and shut the door, and after a little while Sidney 
went away. 

I think he dated from that hour his change of feel- 
ing towards Hermosa Howard. He had always re- 
spected her. He had even admired her. But no 
greater feeling had yet occurred to him. As long 
as Pax Marston was in his thoughts all else was im- 
possible. But now 

In the big lonely house that night he began to call 
up Hermosa’s personality. What did she look like? 
The very opposite of Pax Marston? Pax was vi- 
vacious, pretty, dainty, blue-eyed, a creature to be 
softly and carefully surrounded with every luxury 
and all that wealth and good breeding could pile up. 

Hermosa was strong and rugged, black-haired and 

black-eyed, resolute, homely No, not homely. 

What was it? She was — ^what? Commanding? 
Forceful? Masculine? No, not masculine; she was 
tender. Oh, how tender, as her strong hands ar- 
ranged her father’s hair and prepared his day’s 
work. But was she a creature to be softly shielded 
from the world’s storms? Nay, she would go out into 
the worst hurricane that ever beat, and with the 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 259 


man she loved, if she ever loved any man, walk 
through it as if it were a mild summer zephyr to be 
wooed. And she was keeping that blackened board ! 
Why? 

With that question ringing in his heart he fell 
asleep. 

Several months went by. It was spring again, 
and the Columbia was at last finished. Brander 
Cushing’s five years were completed and he would be 
a free man a week before the date fixed for the 
launching. He would be coming home. Home ! Sid- 
ney sat down in the library and cried like a child at 
the thought of it. Tremendous things had occurred 
within that time. He knew now that the dearest 
person in the world to him now — ^yes, even more than 
his own father — was Hermosa. He trembled as he 
thought of her — of all it meant to him, of all it 
might mean to her. But since he had begun to love 
her as he never dreamed of loving any one he had 
noted her attitude towards him and he hoped 

He was going to call that evening. He was go- 
ing to ask her if she could share life with him. 

He found himself as in a dream of movements 
speaking to Hermosa’s father as they talked over 
various subjects in which they had become inter- 
ested. Hermosa was seated over by the window that 
looked out across the alley, that window through 
which he had drawn her and Athanasia that day five 
years and more ago. 

Finally he found an opportunity lo go over near 
Her, Outwardly Hermosa was calm. In reality she 


260 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


was trembling and weak. I think she knew that Sid- 
ney was going to speak that night. 

“ Hermosa ! ” he said. It was the only time but 
once he had ever addressed her by that name. 

Hermosa looked up and understood in a moment. 
But she did not move. Only she laid her work down 
on a table and covered her face. 

‘‘Hermosa, it seems that this is the place I must 
tell you — ^by this window where I first saw you. I 
did not know it then. But if God helped me to save 
you then, it was that we might be saved for each 
other.” 

Hermosa was crying. 

“ Oh, it cannot be. We are too far apart socially. 
It must not ” 

“ Hermosa, look up. I want to know only one 
thing. Do you love me? ” 

Hermosa looked up. And Sidney saw in a mo- 
ment. 

“ Yes ! ” She was standing by him, by that win- 
dow. The tragedy of both their lives seemed deep- 
ened by it, but through it the overmastering love of 
lovers rose to such a height that Hermosa Howard 
that night gave herself without reserve to the man 
who was to be her husband, and these two strong 
brave souls thenceforth were to walk along the human 
path together hand in hand, heart to heart, to grow 
by suffering and by joy into one life. 

They went over to Hermosa’s father. 

He smiled when they told him. 

“ I knew it all the time,” he said. 


THE MIRACLE OF THE AGES 261 


“I shall be jealous,” cried Sidney. ‘‘Tell me, 
Hermosa, when did you first love me? ” Foolish but 
eternal question of lovers. 

Hermosa took his hand and led him to the window 
where they had first kissed each other. 

“ There ! V she said as she flung her arm out. 
“ There, as I looked across that day and saw you, 
I loved you, and I have been loving you ever since ! ” 

Athanasia took the news with simple-hearted joy. 
“ Hermosa is my sister. You will be my brother ! ” 
she said. And they all believed her. But deep in 
her heart, which was not feeble-minded, I think 
Athanasia Ward carries to her grave the other kind 
of love which she can never know in this world. 

On the day of the launching, another distinguished 
group stood on the platform by the Columbia, 

Brander Cushing was there, the object of curi- 
osity to hundreds of observant eyes. The President 
of the United States was present and a crowd of 
famous fighters, 

Hermosa was to christen the ship. She had yielded 
at Brander Cushing’s earnest request. She had 
made a request that water be used instead of cham- 
pagne and that she be allowed to speak a word as the 
ship went down the ways. 

Father and son stood side by side, as Hermosa 
stepped forward just after the President’s speech. 
She was at that moment the one figure commanding 
attention even beyond the Cushings or the chief of 
the nation. 


262 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


She broke the flask of clear water over the bows 
and at the same instant exclaimed, Long live the 
Republic ! And may this ship never be used in war ! 
And may we all live to see the reign of universal peace 
among the nations of the earth ! ” 

As she stood there, she typified womanhood and 
childhood, the two who have always suffered most 
from war’s horrors. She stood there, straight and 
strong, and patient and intelligent, a woman of the 
people, with a vision of a world from which the clang 
of war has given way to the harmony of peace. And 
she turned away that day from the greetings of the 
President and others, who had even there in their 
amazement caught something of the meaning of that 
hour, and with the man she loved and with his father, 
who had passed through his furnace to come out fine 
gold, she went her way with them. And Brander 
Cushing’s ambition was satisfied. 


EPILOGUE 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER: 

SIDNEY gushing’s CHEISTMAS STOEY 

T T was six o’clock on Christmas eve and Sidney 
Cushing and his wife were seated in the library 
room of the old Cushing homestead, Dockville, talk- 
ing earnestly together. 

‘‘You are sure,” Hermosa was saying anxiously, 
“ you are sure you are not mistaken about the 
train? ” 

“ No. I’m very sure of that. You know what a 
careful boy Brander is. He wrote a week ago that 
if he could get away he would come on No. 12. 
I went down at four, but no Brander.” 

“What do you suppose is the matter? I was 
never more disappointed in my life. It is bad enough 
not to have Athanasia with us on Christmas. But 
how are we ever to get along without either of them.” 

“ Courage, courage, brave lass,” said Sidney 
cheerfully. “Why, I do believe you are going to 
weep. I feel as badly about it as you do. Some- 
thing important must have kept the boy. You know 
he has been eager to visit the mills at Burnham and 
he may have gone there for his vacation.” 

“ The idea. You cannot make me believe that 
263 


264 ! 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Brander would go anywhere else instead of home if 
he could leave school at Christmas time. Hark! 
What’s that? ” 

Hermosa was on her feet, her vigorous, alert face 
aglow. She ran out into the hall and was near the 
door when it opened and a young man and a young 
woman stepped in. 

Hermosa gave a loud cry of delight, ran forward, 
and swept both of them together into her arms. 

‘‘ Give me one of them,” said Sidney, laughing. 

You have no right to such a monopoly.” 

‘‘ I believe you knew all about it,” said Hermosa 
as brother and sister circled in a joyful dance 
around the father and mother. 

No, honor bright. I’m as much taken in as you 
are. Brander, you scamp, what do you mean by this 
unexpected donation party.” 

‘‘ I’ll tell you if you’ll let us sit down.” 

The boy seized his mother and drew her down upon 
a couch, and Athanasia, as if the habit were one that 
had grown from childhood, backed her father into a 
big rocking chair and perched herself on one of its 
wide arms. 

You see, at the last minute just as I was going 
to take No. 12, sis wired me to come by way of 
Allsworth and bring her. She had not expected to 
come, but ” 

Athanasia eagerly broke in — ‘‘ You see, dad, I 
had planned to stay and nurse my room mate who 
has been on the hospital list but just recovering. 
She was back at the hall, but it seemed so dreary for 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 265 


Her to be left almost alone there. So I promised to 
stay. But at the last minute her sister came unex- 
pectedly and I thought you wouldn^t mind if I came 
home with Brander.” 

And we took No. 6,” said Brander, as he patted 
Hermosa’s cheek, “ and knowing the strength of 
your nerves, we ventured to come on without send- 
ing word. You don’t mind, do you? ” 

‘‘ But we do mind most emphatically,” cried Her- 
mosa. We will never forgive you until you do it 
again, soon. Oh, I have just been lonesome for you 
babies all fall.” 

‘‘Babies! Hear mother talk, dad. I was twen- 
ty-one last week, and I hope you remember your 
promise.” 

“ What is that ? ” Athanasia asked eagerly. 

“ Dad promised to tell us all about everything 
when I was of age. Of course we know something, 
but there’s lots we never learned about grandfather 
and the old battleship and the factory and the ad- 
miral’s daughter — and all that. That’s what I came 
home for.” 

Sidney Cushing looked gravely but not gloomily 
at his son. 

“ I’ll tell it after dinner. I can’t tell a story un- 
less we are cosy in front of the big fire in the library. 
I’ve laid the wood all ready, and I haven’t forgotten 
my promise, boy. But, dinner first.” 

After brother and sister had come down from 
their rooms and the four were seated at the table, 
the talk flew back and forth fast. 


S66 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Hermosa was in high spirits. Sidney was not so 
exalted; his mind was already traveling over the 
years back and connecting the present with all that 
strange and eventful past. 

Brander was saying in a sentence that roused his 
father from a revery: 

“ Oh, father, I didn’t tell you, did I ? I am going 
to room next term with Sidney Marston, Admiral 
Edward Marston’s son. My old chum, Warren, 
went west, and Marston and I made arrangements 
last week to go in together.” 

And talking of fiction, father,” said Athanasia 
gayly, it sounds like a made-up story, but Admiral 
Marston’s daughter Pax is in our school at Alls- 
worth and just before I left this time for home we 
made arrangements to be together next half. She 
is a lovely girl. I have never seen any one I like so 
much. We are going to he good friends.” 

‘‘ It’s very strange,” murmured Sidney. 

Stranger than you can imagine until you hear the 
story. But ” 

The bell rang. A moment later the servant came 
into the dining room and spoke to Sidney. 

What ! You don’t say! ” Sidney rose from the 
table and rushed out into the hall. Three people 
were standing there. 

“Ed, old man, how did you come down? ” 

“ Came down the chimney, with the kids under my 
arms. I’ll tell you. The President has ordered me 
to Portsmouth to represent our navy in the final 
universal Peace Treaty with the other world 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 267 


powers. I don’t have to sail from New York until 
day after to-morrow and being so near I couldn’t 
resist the thought of seeing you. And I wanted the 
children to see Mrs. Cushing and your kiddies. I’ve 
been abroad so long, you know, it seems awfully good 
to hear the American language again.” 

‘^You don’t leave the house to-night, Ed. We 
have rooms and to spare in the old house. Where 
is your baggage? ” 

“It’s out here in the vestibule. I thought you 
would ask us to stay all night.” 

“ You haven’t had dinner, I hope? ” asked Sidney 
delightedly. 

“ No. We expected you would invite us to take 
dinner.” 

“Father!” cried the Mars ton boy and girl while 
Sidney roared. 

“You don’t know him as well as I do,” said Ad- 
miral Ed Marston. “ Pax, I let him save my life 
once, as I have told you a score of times. That en- 
titles me to take any lesser favors from him. Be- 
sides, I don’t stay in a Dockville hotel as long as 
Mrs. Cushing does her own cooking.” 

In the twinkling of an eye Hermosa reseated the 
table. The admiral, his son and daughter com- 
pleted the circle, and Sidney was so pleased that his 
winning smile seemed to go clear around the table 
and back again. The four young people looked at 
one another with the shy but interested look which 
always accompanies healthy and happy young life. 
And the Christmas eve dinner was a positive and 


268 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


splendid success, for Hermosa knew how to take care 
of unexpected guests and unusual situations. 

But the supreme interest of the evening centered 
about Sidney when the great wood fire in the library 
had been lighted and the entire company seated in 
front of it. Ed Marston was at one end of the half 
circle, the four young people were in the center with 
Hermosa, and Sidney at the other end. Admiral Ed 
Marston sighed a great sigh of contentment as he 
looked over at his old friend. 

If there’s anything I love it’s a story, especially 
if it’s true, as I know this is going to be. So fire 
away, old man ; this beats all the gorgeous naval ban- 
quets which have made me the lost dyspeptic wreck 
you now behold; eh, Pax?” 

Sidney did not begin at once. He was in a revery. 
How the old scenes of twenty-five years ago crowded 
up in the glow of the firelight, when his old friend 
Ed Marston spoke tha£ word Pax ” ! He saw Her- 
mosa’s face turn to his with the conquering look of 
the eternal love that all through the ages will con- 
tinue to live, and after a moment’s caress of the 
heavy black hair even now only slightly sprinkled 
with grey he began, 

I promised Brander some time ago that when he 
was twenty-one, I would try to give him some ac- 
count of the things that occurred twenty-five years 
ago here in Dockville. You may think some of the 
things I am going to tell are impossible, but you 
must remember how different everything was then 
and how differently people acted towards one an- 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 269 


other in many ways. But perhaps you will notice 
that, as I go on. 

First of all, I must begin with your grandfather. 
He died before you were born. How I wish you 
might have seen him. He was a very remarkable 
man. An athlete in the university and a splendid 
wrestler, walker, and public speaker. Besides, he 
had a great inventive genius. He was known all 
over the world for his inventions in shipbuilding. 
Agents from shipbuilding yards all over the world 
came to Dockville to learn methods of construction. 
The Republic contained a score of new appliances 
never before used, all of them your grandfather’s 
ideas.” 

The Republic? ” Sidney’s boy asked. 

Yes. The last battleship but one launched from 
the yard. She has been obsolete for more than 
twenty years.” 

On the tramp list out of Donegal Bay,” said 
Ed Marston. “ Nothing left of her but a wheeze and 
a groan.” 

“ But it was on the day of the launching of the 
Republic that your grandfather’s real life history 
began and mine also,” continued Sidney gravely. 

I ^m going to tell this part of the story briefly but 
with all the frankness that I know father would tell 
it and want you to know it.” 

He paused a moment and his eyes lingered with 
the long gaze of a lover on his wife. Hermosa’s 
strong hand lay in his, 

^^At the launching of the Republic I first met 


270 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


Admiral Marston’s daughter, Pax, your second 
cousin.” He nodded towards the girl who was seated 
by Athanasia and listening with great intentness. 
‘‘ And I think it was a case of love at first sight, or 
at least it seemed to be. At any rate I felt a real 
thrill of unusual pleasure when I was introduced to 
her after the ship had been launched. I should have 
said that when Pax christened the vessel she broke a 
bottle of champagne over the bows and a bow of red, 
white and blue ribbons which had been tied around 
the neck of the bottle floated down past where I 
was standing. I remember I was saying to myself 
at the time, I would risk my neck to get that bow, 
and as it turned out I did. For when I reached out 
after the ribbons I slipped on the edge of the plat- 
form and almost fell into the river seventy-five feet 
below. I caught the ribbons, but I lost my hat, and it 
was that trifling loss that changed the history of my 
life. After I had accepted an invitation from Admiral 
Marston to come and see them if I were ever in 
Washington, father sent me up town to buy a new 
hat. And it was on my way up there that I ran into 
the naval factory horror which resulted in your 
grandfather’s tragedy and really led to all the other 
events which made history for all of us.” 

Sidney paused again, then went on in a lower 
tone. 

I can never call up that scene without a great 
upsetting of my whole nature. I remember how I 
raced up the six flights of stairs in that double- 
decker right after the explosion in the factory, see- 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 271 


ing with every step those bodies falling, falling out 
of the windows of the seventh story. I had a clear 
plan in my head that when I got up there I would 
find something to throw out across the alley between 
the tenement and the factory so that some of the 
girls would be saved. I burst into the room where 
Hermosa’s father lived, and he showed me a paper 
hanger’s board left in a near-by room, and I got it 
and it just stuck across between the windows, 
and ” 

Sidney paused again, for Hermosa had risen and 
her face had on it the look of one who has in some 
mysterious way called back the years, and to Sidney 
and the rest as she stood there in the firelight she 
was like a beautiful but sorrowful child of the people 
bearing their majestic griefs and sharing their heart- 
rending story of daily life. 

Let me tell my part of that,” she said ; Bran- 
der has heard your side of it before, but I have never 
told mine. 

When the fire broke out I was on the other side 
of the room. After I found I could not open the 
door, I ran across the room over to the window 
through which your father had thrust the board. 
Loretta Madser, Olivia Slovakoff and Bettina Wand 
were fighting with one another to see who should go 
first, and I pulled them apart. Then for the first 
time I saw the figure in the window across the alley. 

Did you ever see that picture in the Metropoli- 
?an Museum of Solario the transfigured? If not go 
and stand before it. You will see what I saw that 


272 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


afternoon, a figure of collected power reaching out 
an arm that almost spoke to the poor girls who ven- 
tured out on that thin bending board. It may not 
seem possible, but even the terror by which I was 
surrounded could not prevent my fascinated atten- 
tion, and when he had pulled Athanasia through the 
window and had reached out at risk of his own life 
to seize me, I was at that moment wondering where 
such heroism had been grown. But when a second 
later the sash gave way and your father fell, I felt 
as if I had been guilty of his death, and when I felt 
my hand about his wrist as he hung there with his 
fingers over the window ledge, I prayed. Oh, how I 
prayed ! that I might save him, and then something in 
my brain snapped and I felt my strength going, and 
all was dark. When a few minutes later I came to 
myself and saw him alive in the room helping 
Athanasia and me to take my father down the stairs, 
words cannot express my feelings ; only I know I be- 
gan to love him from that hour. That was before I 
knew there was a Pax.” 

And after that ^ ” Sidney smiled. 

It made no difference. Somehow I could not 
help believing we belonged to each other, as we 
do.” 

Hermosa sat down and Sidney went on. 

I do not want to dwell on the horror of that day 
and its far-reaching results except to mention your 
grandfather’s part in it. 

‘‘You know already from what I have told you 
most of this story. I need give only the outline. 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 273 


Father had failed to comply with the law in the 
matter of fire-escapes on the factory. In the face 
of a certain indictment brought by the grand jury 
for criminal negligence he saw no escape from a des- 
perate situation except to perjure himself and deny 
the service of the fire marshal’s papers. I made a 
solemn promise to stand by him and perjure myself 
to save him, as the papers were served on him when 
I was present. 

“ When the trial came off and your grandfather 
was put on the stand to deny the sworn testimony of 
the fire marshal’s deputy, to the utter astonishment 
of everyone, including myself, he pleaded guilty, and 
was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. 

That was the most agonizing moment of my life. 
At the time I did not see how I could live through it. 
I doubt if I could if it had not been for the amazing 
iron will of your grandfather. From the moment 
the prison walls closed around him he began to plan 
for his return to his old place and the compulsion on 
society to acknowledge him as it formerly did. 

At this crisis in his life, although he did not 
know it, his final salvation as a man depended on the 
fact that the warden of the prison was a great- 
hearted Christian. Now that all the wardens of our 
prisons are of that stalwart Christian type you may 
wonder why I emphasize this point. But twenty-five 
years ago it was not common. 

‘^It was through the influence of Warden Arm- 
strong that your grandfather became a disciple of 
the Master; and at the same time a desperate anar- 


274 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


chist and bomb thrower found his Redeemer. An- 
drew Brodig was his name.” 

‘‘ What ! Andrew the watchman at the draught- 
ing room? ” said Brander eagerly, 

“ Yes. The mildest, sweetest tempered old man I 
ever knew. In a draughting room like that one 
where you have played with the old man as a little 
boy, Andrew Brodig attacked your grandfather the 
day of the funerals of the victims of the factory fire. 
Afterwards he sent an anonymous note to the house 
warning your grandfather not to go near the 
draughting room that night. It was that same 
night that the house here was attacked by a mob, 
and the shipyard destroyed. We all believed it was 
the work of Andrew, but afterwards he was able to 
prove conclusively that it was the work of an accom- 
plice whom he had tried to persuade from committing 
the act, and after several years he was pardoned out 
of the penitentiary and I put him into the works as 
a watchman. Poor Andrew! At his request he is 
buried near father’s grave. But he died in the faith, 
joyful in his Saviour. 

“After your grandfather entered the prison and 
during his entire sentence I carried on the work of 
the shipyard with the help of able superintendents. 
Your grandfather’s great ambition even in the peni- * 
tentlary before he become a Christian was to send 
out of the ship-yard the most perfect fighting ma- 
chine the world had ever seen. We were delayed by 
strikes, walkouts, and accidents of a serious nature, 
so that the ship was not ready for launching until 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 275 


your grandfather’s sentence had expired. And I 
think the most remarkable scene I ever witnessed in 
some ways was the sight of your grandfather that 
day standing calm and grave by the side of that 
steel monster, utterly disbelieving in war and in the 
very machine he had helped to create and pray- 
ing in his heart as he stood surrounded by all those 
uniformed naval officers that this warship might 
never be used in a war. And then, to crown it all, 
Hermosa christened the ship with water, and stand- 
ing by the side of the President of the United States 
and in the presence of big guns from the Senate and 
the army and navy made one of the most effective 
short speeches on record breathing a devout hope 
that the time would speedily come when universal 
peace would exist among the nations of the world. 

“ Before that time, a good many interesting things 
had happened. 

“ I had passed through a crisis in my religious 
life and had accepted the teachings and program of 
the Prince of Peace. And this new faith had changed 
my attitude towards the question of war and war 
material, as his Christian vision had also changed 
your grandfather. Before this occurred, however, 
I had gone to Washington to see Pax Marston. I 
was not clearly sure of my feelings for her, but once 
in the presence of her father it seemed to me my 
doubts disappeared and I avowed to him my love for 
her. 

Then I found out that Pax and her mother had 
gone abroad at the instance of her parents In order 


276 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


to prevent our meeting. Admiral Marston and his 
wife were positive in their denial of mj suit on ac- 
count of your grandfather’s disgrace and I was too 
proud to make my plea against it.” 

“ Say, old friend, I have never quite got over 
that,” broke in Ed Marston. But, poor Pax. Her 
husband was killed while witnessing from his battle- 
ship the engagement of the Italians at Tripoli, and 
I thought so much of her that when this girlie came 
I gave her the old family name. Queer name for the 
daughter of an admiral, isn’t it.^ I never under- 
stood Unc’ Marston’s real reason for the name, until 
a short time before his death he told me down in his 
heart he wanted to see peace on the earth. Perhaps 
other people called admirals feel the same.” 

‘‘I’m sure they do,” said Sidney. “Especially 
the one who has done so much these last five years to 
create sentiment, and who is now on his way as the 
honored representative of the United States to be 
present at the last scene of treaty-making among all 
the civilized nations.” 

“ Thank you, Cushing. I will reserve my elo- 
quent response for the occasion over there. Go on.” 

“ Well, when I came back from Washington, for 
a time, I was pretty low. Then came my religious 
upheaval. For that I owe everything to this woman 
here, and to the dear friends in the old tenement and 
to their minister. 

“ I wrote to Pax telling her of my religious faith 
and the deep changes it had made in me, especially 
in my convictions concerning war. 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 277 


Mj letter was answered by her mother and she 
gave me to understand that my attitude made it 
absolutely impossible for the Marston family to 
consider me as a possible member of their family. 
Some time later came the news of Pax’s engagement 
to Captain Lloyd-Hereford. And that closed that 
chapter of my romance.” 

Then,” broke in Hermosa gayly, to save your 
father embarrassment at this point, having lost one 
girl he turned to another. And that other was your 
mother. I have never reproached him for it.” 

Just what I was going to say,” interrupted Sid- 
ney. Hermosa said when I spoke to her that she 
loved me as I stood in the window that day of the 
fire. I have been thinking all through these years 
that I probably could date my love for her from 
the same hour, but did not know what it meant, and 
that the reason why I could never quite make up my 
mind about Pax Marston was because back in my 
life somewhere, Hermosa Howard had the place that 
belonged to her. I don’t philosophize over it. I 
take it as a great gracious love benediction in my 
life that I have Hermosa.” 

There was a silence in the half circle that all un- 
derstood. Then Sidney was saying, 

‘‘I want Brander and all the rest of you young 
folks to remember this Christmas eve the great bless- 
ings of the world in which you live. 

“ Twenty-five years ago, when President Taft was 
the executive head of this country and when your 
grandfather was planning to carry out his ambition. 


S78 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


very many things were strangely different from 
things to-day. 

‘‘ There was a war going on between Italy and 
Turkey, and many fearful brutalities on both sides. 
There was a serious disturbance between Russia and 
Persia in which we as a nation were deeply inter- 
ested. The old treaty of 1832 between the United 
States and Russia was abrogated by President Taft 
and his action ratified by the Senate. China was 
going through the revolutionary disturbance which 
finally resulted in her becoming the great republic 
you young folks know. There were tremendous 
conflicts between capital and labor twenty-five years 
ago. One of the most sensational of all was known 
as the dynamite case where certain union labor men 
confessed their guilt in blowing up buildings, bridges, 
and private houses and were given life sentences. 
The whole thing brought suspicion on organized 
labor, but finally resulted in the peaceful arbitration 
of industrial conflict by the government commissions 
for the settlement of all such troubles, and in the 
appointment of these commissions the Christian 
Church was given a large place as arbitrator. 
Twenty-five years ago the different church denomi- 
nations were wasting power in struggling for posi- 
tion against one another. Now they are working 
out a plan of division of Christian service which is 
making the church the wonderful power you know 
it to be. Twenty-five years ago the saloon was 
boasting even in prohibition States that the wave of 
temperance reform had reached its height and that 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 279 


the next twenty-five years would see the liquor busi- 
ness back in the old place of its rule. But there is 
not a saloon in the United States to-day ; the passage 
of the inter-state commerce bill made prohibition 
States unassailable by the brewers, and public senti- 
ment, backed up by the fact of universal suffrage in 
all the States for men and women alike, has made the 
saloon a past issue like slavery. All that would 
have seemed to people in New York and Chicago and 
Denver like a miracle twenty-five years ago. It is 
a miracle. It is the same miracle that made your 
grandfather love the Lord Jesus Christ and gave him 
a heart of flesh instead of stone. The miracle which 
is changing the history of this old earth. 

And with all the rest of the change none per- 
haps seems more miraculous to me than the change 
that has come over the world since war and all that 
belongs to it has passed away. 

The final act in the great drama is taking place 
now. The war spirit has survived a great many 
centuries. But it has passed away and can never 
more return. The nations agreed, as you know, 
fifteen years ago to discontinue armaments. Of 
course you are familiar with the everyday fact that 
Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, the 
South American republics and the United States 
have been using the warships as transports in com- 
mercial service. The refitting of some of these ships 
for this service has been the work of the Cushing 
shipyard. You young people were not surprised 
when the Columbia was launched the other day from 


2S0 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


the same yard where twenty-five years ago she slid 
down into the river as an engine of hate and destruc- 
tion. But you can hardly understand the feelings 
Hermosa and I had as we watched that newly fitted 
out ship go back into the water knowing that her 
first cargo will not be murderous shells and explo- 
sives, but a load of wheat to be used by the govern- 
ment missionary experiment stations in northern cen- 
tral Africa. She will sail next month a benignant 
messenger of life instead of death.” 

Sidney paused again and looked at the earnest 
faces which the firelight brightened with the glow of 
deep interest and affection. His heart beat with 
gratitude as he mused over his life history, and the 
mighty victories of that peasant of Galilee. And 
his closing word revealed especially to the young 
people his hope for the future. 

How have these wonderful changes in the world’s 
history been possible? There is only one answer. 
The person and teachings of Jesus Christ, whose 
birth we celebrate to-night and to-morrow. In no 
other way can all these miracles be accounted for. 
What else could have changed your grandfather from 
an iron-willed, stony-hearted, war-loving man into 
one of the humblest, gentlest, peace-loving men that 
ever lived? And Jesus came to him, you must remem- 
ber, while he was a felon confined in a State prison. 
What other power except the gospel could have taken 
Andrew Brodig, a half-insane anarchist, the product 
of standing armies and centuries of insolent oppres-. 
slon, and made out of him a sweet-tempered, devout. 


TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER 281 


well-balanced Christian disciple? Nothing but Jesus 
and his love. What could have taken Athanasia 
Ward, feeble-minded working girl, crushed by un- 
fair economic conditions, buffeted by the handi- 
cap of weakness, and caused her to understand the 
mighty fact that she was a child of God and that 
some time her longing for love and loveliness would 
be gratified, so that when you spoke the name of 
Jesus, her face glowed with a beauty that trans- 
cended the physical? What could have wrought 
that miracle except the personal touch of a personal 
Redeemer? What could have taken my own self- 
satisfied moral life and in the face of what seemed 
like asking me to do a thing that would break the 
heart of the father who had given his life for mine, 
still follow a higher master? Nothing but that 
great figure who said, ^ If a man love father or mother 
more than me, he is not worthy of me.’ What power 
can change men’s minds and habits so that they cease 
to hate and begin to love, cease to fight and begin 
to work side by side? 

‘^And the best thing I can wish for you young 
folks is that the molding, shaping, upbuilding, new- 
creating power of Jesus Christ shall come into your 
lives as you stand at the beginning of a great chap- 
ter of world history. I wonder, if we are silent now 
for a moment if we may not hear that angel song the 
shepherds heard those many years ago, once upon 
a time.” 

The half circle sat hushed. A tear was stealing 
doTVTi over Admiral Ed Marston’s bronzed cheek. I 


S82 


A BUILDER OF SHIPS 


think for the first time he gave his heart to the 
world’s Redeemer that night. And as Sidnejr saw 
it he clasped his hand in his wife’s and visions of 
the young people’s future stole like softened images 
of love into his mind. And as they sat there in the 
firelight, somewhere in God’s blue starry sky above 
them I think they all heard again that refrain that 
is the sweetest music this war-swept earth will ever 
hear, — Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace among men in whom he is well pleased.” 


THE END 























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